Ode to Sin
by MyLittleChip
Summary: She was a Jane Doe. No past, No memory...No sense of sarcasm. When her life becomes entwine with the sin greed she learns she is no stranger to murders and the shadows that follow it. "Why would you search for a past you desperately wanted to forget?"
1. The Jane Doe

Chapter 1 "The Jane Doe"

Disclaimer: I do not own anything involving Fullmetal Alchemist.

_So I have been working on this little story for about a month now. I didn't think of putting this up, but I decided to anyway. The story starts out kinda like the 2003 anime, but it dissolves into the 2009 Brotherhood version…if that makes sense 0.o _

**Enjoy the read! **

***

"_Oh, I wonder how the little bird will fall?_

_Will your wings be ripped away_

_Against the starry nights grim ways?_

_Oh, I wonder how the little bird will fall…"_

Ode laid absentmindedly on her secluded bed, staring with dull brown eyes at the ceiling. It was a daily routine, she would watch a pair of scientists cross her cell, to investigate a poor ghastly creature, rotting down the hall; then rest her gaze at the grey crypt like walls.

Of course through idle times, trapped in a condensed cage, the bird did what was expected to do…she sang.

'_Torrent darkness taunts longing wings_

_wish to taste the sky_

_Little bird sleeps in blood_

_Little bird…"_

_**BOOM!!**_

"…."

'_What the?' _Ode faded out from her singing, lifting her head and cocking it lightly at the barred door. Chips of cement followed by trails of dust fell from above, like tiny little comets.

"Who screwed up an experiment?" she inquired softly to herself. The scientists ran on by; this time their faces were twisted in fright. As soon as the men departed the hallway the curious teen approached the bars. Her hands brushed against the black metal poles.

'_Oh, they forgot to lock it again,'_ she grimaced, pushing it open. '_I should really tell them about that." _

They didn't notice her much, really. But then again she didn't notice them either so it balanced out. Ode had lived in the labs for seven years…maybe even longer.

She was sixteen-years-old from what she could recall from the files she rummaged through a few months ago. There was a younger picture of Ode around the age of nine but 'Ode' wasn't listed as her name. In bold letters at the top of the papers is said "**Jane Doe" **along with a number. She couldn't remember the number though, but that could be from the fact her time was limited and left before anyone thought to examine her cell.

Yes, the teen girl did wonder around the lower levels nearly everyday. The answer to why she could was quite simple. She never got in trouble if she was caught. The scientists would pay no heed to the wandering girl, since she didn't attempt to escape, her walk around weren't a nuisances.

The rattling walls ceased, when Ode hurried down the dim lit halls. She halted near the stairway to the upstairs. Ode waited for a person's voice to echo; though all was heard was her gentle breathing.

_**BOOM!**_

There it goes again, however this time the vibration came from the opposite direction, and less rubble tumbled down to the chilling floor.

Ode ran down the halls again, dodging sharp rocks as she went. The last thing she wanted was to be digging into her foot for shards of objects and have it glazed in hot blood.

"Who knows the fastest way out of here?" a male asked, their voice echoing down the halls from up ahead in a nearby room. The cinnamon brown-eyed girl quietly walked over to the entrance, where voices multiplied the closer she reached the room.

"I'd guess all the exits are upstairs. Their idiots if they were to put them down here anyway." A woman sneered. From the sound of her voice, she was a woman somewhere around her thirties possibly? Ah, whom the hell was she kidding! She couldn't identify anyone's age. She wasn't even certain of her own, despite the fact the files back it up.

The woman was corrected, there wasn't any exits down here, only doorways leading to the next branch of the experimenting rooms.

Ode's eyes crept away from the walls and peered at the mysterious figures crowded around in the middle of the eerie prison cells.

The first one she saw was a woman with short blonde hair, with one strand in front, which was longer than the rest. There were strange violet tattoo markings that lay on her right cheek then slid all the way down her shoulder.

The next being she spotted was a short male with spiky brownish-blondeish type hair. One notable item he possessed was a long sword that was attached to his belt.

Those two were one of many as she scanned the whole room to find other people who looked like humans and others who looked…well inhuman. One of them looked like some kind of reptile with a long grey and rough textured tail! But who was she to judge, that could for all she knew be normal.

From taking trips around the halls and a few deserted rooms one place she was never allowed to enter were the experimenting chambers, and the prisoners who are sent into them. She didn't understand why, nor did she really care. Everything seemed like foolish nonsense since she had been in the labs, or at least…from what or if she could remember.

"Hold on, something isn't right," said the short man with the gleaming silver sword. He sniffed the enclosed air and immediately turned in the direction of the doorway where Ode hid in the shadows. It was obvious now he comprehended that they were being watched.

"We're not alone."

Ode slowly moved away, keeping her vision set upon the cement floors and waited for the shadows of the strangers to grow in size.

It was a fragment of time when she realized what happened. She attempted to run, but an unfriendly arm jerked her shoulder back, sending her body to fall limp like a rag doll. Ode caught her balance and whipped around to be met by the same gleaming sword nearly an inch from biting at her skin.

"Where the hell are you going?" he growled.

"I was going to try and find the source of the loud noise, and then calmly tell them not to do it again," she spoke bluntly. Ode could feel the blade hovering so close to her body, ready at any moment to strike her down.

"Did you get him, Dolcetto?" a deep male voice uttered from the doorway. The brown-eyed teen was able to snatch a glance at the new comber. He was much taller than the one with the pointy sword, and had snowy white hair. His outfit was much similar the ones the scientists walk around with, only his was green as opposed to the blue and cleaner versions they wear.

"Yeah I got _her_, but she looks like another one of us lab rats," the called Dolcetto explained.

"Um, actually, I am not lab rat. I'm a human being who lives in labs," Ode told him, while trying to create some distance between her and the sword.

"Don't be a smartass!" he scowled. Dolcetto noticed Ode's movements and quickly grabbed her arm and pulled her towards the others.

'_A smartass…?_'

"Oh, I know who this is! It's the runt who likes to go on a midnight stroll every once in awhile." A familiar female's voice said. Cinnamon eyes saw the blonde woman with the violet tattoos join in on the small little group forming around her. Now that she had everyone near her, she could ask them a question and one of them would know the answer.

"Uh, pardon me, but what is a smartass?" she inquired, tilting her head innocently to the side, with a curious expression.

"What?…I think the experiments have fucked her up in the head."

"Well now, who's our little intruder?" another male asked. The trio all turned and cleared a path for the other mysterious being to make way through.

It was another spiky haired guy, only he had black rather than the brownish tone like the other person. He was physically fit, and wore a black vest with white fur around the collar…it must have been so soft to touch too.

"She's another lab rat, but she doesn't smell like she was fused with a chimera," the brown haired one said.

"Is that so?" the black spiky haired one said. He leaned in forward studying Ode, occasionally moving his eyes up and down. "What's your name sweetheart?"

Ode, needed time to collect the question into her mind. She gave herself a name, but it wasn't really her name…she didn't even know what her real name was.

"Um, my name. Umm, in the files I was reading the scientist have decided to name me Jane Doe."

"Jane Doe huh? Don't have real name then?"

"No sir. But I like to call myself 'Ode'" She said smiling cheerfully at him.

"That's quite strange name you gave yourself. Any reason why?" he grinned, Ode couldn't help but notice how sharp his teeth were.

"It's Doe, but you rearrange the D and the O." True it wasn't that creative but she hasn't been able to think creatively since she got here…. Was she ever creative, or maybe she was but last the interest coming into the labs…just maybe.

"Greed, if we stay any longer we will never be able to get out of here." The white haired man informed the sharp toothed guy.

"Right," The one called Greed, gently cupped Ode's chin, causing her to keep an intense eye contact. "Listen, doll we don't have much time, so how would you like to come with us and leave this damn place."

"Leave here?" she replied. Every memory she ever had laid inside these ancient walls. It was slightly frightening to leave them…but she wasn't exactly a fan of her three-hour stare session with the mute walls.

"We're on a tight schedule here, so I need an answer now."

Ode didn't need another moment, she was curious.

"I'll go."


	2. Ling Yao

Chapter 2. "Ling Yao"

Disclaimer: I do not own anything involving Fullmetal Alchemist.

The story starts out kinda like the 2003 anime, but it dissolves into the 2009 Brotherhood version…if that makes sense 0.o

**Enjoy the read!**

***

She was blind!

She couldn't see a single thing!

Eternal brightness, never to see another shade of colour for as long as she lived!

...Oh, wait never mind she could see now.

Ode blinked a few times uncertain if her surroundings were merely an illusion from the sudden light. Milky lanterns glowed in distant lines all across the streets, while buildings towered all along the area.

_'Where are we_?' Nothing snapped inside her head that would recall this strange new place. Maybe she never saw it, or it was so long ago she couldn't remember. Well, she couldn't remember anything so that doesn't explain her predicament.

"Keep on going," the other lady hissed, as she started to shove and steer Ode away from the building. "You can sight see later, when we're far from here."

"But, where is here?" she asked. No one answered the curious girl but continued on their journey out of the city.

***

_**1 hour…**_

_**2 hours…**_

_**3 hours…**_

Maybe it was because the break out interfered with her night schedule, or maybe it was because she was so bored she zoned out for a few hours; whatever the reason, the next time Ode glanced around her surroundings she was on someone's back and in a new city.

"This looks new," she yawned, catching the attention of the man named Dolcetto

"Good your awake, now I won't have to carry you for another three hours," Dolcetto said.

"You wouldn't have had to, the runt and I are going into the town for a little while," the lady replied, while casting her eyes on the girl resting on his back. "We'll meet you all in the next town when we're finished with the errands."

"Errands? What do you need to get?"

"What the hell do you think? Some supplies and a new wardrobe for the appendage clinging onto your back." The blonde lady scowled.

Ode took a moment and gazed down at the clothes she was wearing. It appeared to be a white hospital gown of some sort, except the design was nothing like the ones the other prisoners wore. The cloth clung tighter to the body, and was obviously made for a female body type.

"Heh, got a point there. Alright kid brace yourself," Dolcetto said. A second later the teens feet dropped to the ground and had removed her arms from his neck.

The boss; Greed, noticed the pair of girls ready for their departure and called them both to him for one last order.

"Make sure to catch the next train out of here, alright? It would be such a pain to have to wait until morning for you to arrive," he told the blonde. The lady nodded before grabbing onto Ode's arm and directing her away from the group.

"Oh, and Martel," Greed called, turning his head slightly so he could see her.

"What is it?"

"Pick something flattering on Ode," he grinned playfully, staring directly at the Jane Doe. "A pretty girl like her shouldn't be hidden behind baggy clothes."

"What did he mean by that?" the clueless girl inquired loudly.

"C'mon runt," was all Martel said, though Ode could have sworn she was grumbling something under her breath.

'No one seems to like answering my questions…'

***

Martel told her to stay and wait at the wall, while she took care of all the errands Greed instructed her to attend to. She found some amusement scuffling loose soil in a small pile with her feet, only to run them through and knock them on her shoes, But what it only could entertain for a few minutes or so.

At least she was able to get a new outfit, rather than wear the filthy hospital gown that she had worn all those years in the labs. The outfit was a long plain black dress, with four silver buttons going down in a straight line on her chest. The lady demanded she put on the dress immediately before they were to get caught…whatever that means.

The moon was shining through the lucid night. Did she ever look up at the dark blue sky and see the moon was grinning right back at her? So many mysteries clouded over every thought…so many questions, but no one would answer them. Despite the little bird finally leaving the closed up cage, she still felt condemned to forever live in a cage.

Little bird…

_Little bird…_

_How many feathers must fall off _

_from your graceful idle wings?_

_Oh I wonder how the little bird will fall..,_

_You're times short so keep at bay_

_Before your song sadly dies away_

_Oh I wonder how the little bird will fall…_

…_In love._

"What are you singing?"

Ode wrenched her head up from her knees to investigate on whose voice it belongs to. Her cinnamon eyes met squinted ones that even though it would seem the person could not see they were able to see everything.

It was a male around her age with black hair resting in a low ponytail, and wearing a bronzish-yellow shirt. However the design didn't seem like it came from here…infact, he didn't seem like he was from this country. Ode also noted he too was carrying a sword, but this time it was hanging from his back as opposed to Dolcetto where it hanged from his belt.

"I'm singing a song I know…" she said. The young man smiled warmly at her and then swiftly dropped into a crouch format right in front of the sitting teen.

"What's it called?"

"I dunno." She confessed with a shrug of her shoulders.

"If you could, would you ever ask a bird how his day was?" the foreign man asked half-heartedly.

"Huh?" Ode tilted her head slightly like a curious dog, letting a few strays of hair fall over her face. The troubled teen replayed the words inside her head a few dozen times before coming to some conclusion.

"Well…of course I would. Birds usually sing for a reason; they just want to be heard. So I guess they would be grateful for someone to ask them how their day was and maybe they would reward you, and be willing to answer more questions so they have someone to talk to."

The Jane Doe now had her hand under her chin in a classic thinking pose as she pondered over the conversation she would have a with a bird if she could. "How about you smiling eyes? Would you ask how a birds day was?"

The dark haired stranger just grinned wider. "Nope! Why would you ask such a weird question?" Ode blinked in confusion at the squinting eyed youth. She felt something rise inside her making her feel uncomfortable. She knew this feeling it was very familiar. But what was this emotion?

'_Oh! That's right…embarrassment'_

"But you're the one who asked me the question." She gawked.

"I know, but I didn't expect you to answer." He laughed some.

"…You're weird." The brown-eyed girl rested her chin onto her knees like before, puzzled on what she should do next. Should she continue to talk him? Would he ask another strange question? It was the stranger that decided to speak next.

"I'm Ling Yao." He greeted extending his hand out to Ode.

Yet another being wanted to know the name of the girl.

'It seems like I'm getting popular today. I've never met this many people before.'

"I'm Ode." She responded back, and the two strangers shook hands, not knowing what would become from this little encounter.


	3. A Brush from the East

Chapter 3 "A brush from the East"

Disclaimer: I do not own anything involving Fullmetal Alchemist.

_The story starts out kinda like the 2003 anime, but it dissolves into the 2009 Brotherhood version…if that makes sense 0.o_

_**To those who reviewed, it was much appreciated. Thank you. **_

**Enjoy the read!**

*******

Ling Yao was an interesting stranger. While the lady was away on her errands, the foreigner told Ode many stories of his country called Xing.

"If you're a prince, what are you doing here?" she inquired. The squinty-eyed man seemed to smile and stare out into the lonely streets, like the answer was standing a few feet away.

"I'm looking for something, and I won't return until I have it," he said with a sense of determination in his voice.

"What are you looking for?"

"Something of a legend, really. Only alchemist tend to have heard of it."

Ode had seen alchemist in the labs, but if there was some kind of alchemy legend buzzing around in those cement walls, she would have learned it through her eavsdropping. At least that's what she thought.

"I don't know any legends," she spoke softly. Ling began to laugh as he crossed his arms over his chest.

"There isn't much you do know, is there?" he teased.

"What do you mean?" she asked, sounding just like a naïve child.

"Well, we've been talking for awhile now, and every sentence you have said is 'I dunno', or 'What does that mean?'"

Did she really not know as much as everyone else? Ling Yao could talk about his family and the challenges he confronts for the throne. He could describe in vivid detail of the mountains of Xing, even complain from the experiences he endured in the great desert, dividing his country and hers. But what did Ode know?

"Do you know the colour of your hair?" the clueless girl glanced up to meet a lingering hand grasping a lock of her hair.

_That's not right. _

Ode did regard her hair colour to be black from the countless times she cast her eyes down, and saw it draping like a curtain around her features. However, instead of a black tone; mixed in her strands was a pale blonde.

"Hey! I didn't know there was blonde in my hair. Heh, odd.." Another burst of laughter emerged from the strong jaw lined foreigner.

"When did you last look in a mirror?"

A long pause fell upon the two, causing Ling to sigh and rise from his sitting place against the wall.

"Come with me."

"Huh?"

"I want to show you something," he said, bending over slightly and extending his hand out for her to reach. Ode bit her lip, nervous to make a move. Lady ordered her not to wander off, and threatened her with a sort of punishment.

"Lady would probably be furious…" an indecisive Ode droned.

"Who's Lady?" He inquired, raising an eyebrow.

"Lady is Lady," she stated, like it was a fact written in stone. "She's traveling with me, and it's not wise to wander away from her."

"It's just around the corner," he persuaded. Something inside of Ode; a voice mumbled words to follow Ling. Just like earlier in the night with Greed, curiosity got the best of her, and her hand slid into his own.

***

Blonde hair rested on the top of her rounded face, while near the bottom a sea of ebony blended well with the lighter colour. A sharp small nose, semi-thin lips, and all the years of deprived sunlight showed in her pale snow skin. The girl reflecting back at Ode blinked at the same time as her, copied her every movement; from scratching her wrist, to wiggling her fingers foolishly around.

"So this is a mirror?" the astounded youth reached out to the doppelganger, letting her index finger collide gently onto the cold glass. Ling nodded as he studied her unusual behavior towards the mirror.

"You're a strange one."

"Is something wrong with that?" The prince watched her expression change in the store mirror on display. For once she did not have a ditzy appearance on her face, but a serious, almost remorse kind. She still smiled, just like a fox.

" I guess not." Ling grinned lightly.

And just like a cunning trickster known to be a fox, her smile was decieving.

"I've only been outside for a few hours now, and everything seems so strange. But just because it's different or out of the ordinary, it doesn't make it horrid." Ode averted her eyes away from the mirror and straight at Ling. The xingese teen only grinned wider. He was about to respond until a firm hand gripped his shoulder. Ling cocked his head to the side to meet a blonde lady with tattoo markings, who Ode knew as Lady.

"Sorry to intrude, but if you don't mind I'll be taking the runt now." Martel said.

"Hello, Lady." Ode greeted with a little wave.

"I thought I told you to wait at the wall while I was gone."

"I did wait for you, but Ling wanted to show me what a mirror was. And since it didn't seem like no harm would be done, I followed." She explained in calm tone. Martel rolled her eyes in annoyance, before approaching Ode and snatching her wrist. The other arm was clasping onto a heavy looking bag filled with goods, making the snake woman become a little off balanced.

"Now for you tough guy," Martel scoffed with a glare towards the dark haired prince. "What are you doing out here so late?"

Ling's grin faded into an unpleasant frown, while his squinty eyes narrowed down like he was glaring back at the female chimera.

"I could ask you the same thing."

Suddenly Ode felt like none of them were alone. She couldn't quite understand why… An awkward emotion ran through her body and made the hairs on her neck rise.

"Lady."

"Be quiet!" Martel growled quietly to the pale girl standing a couple inches behind her. "Ling was it? I would be much more careful with talking to people that you don't know. Especialy when you aren't familiar with how they will react."

Ling stepped forward, leaning in a bit amused. "Is that a threat?"

It only took a smirk and a few words of agreement from Martel for a party of two to be standing with blades out, and pointing at the girls opposed from the squinty-eyed foreigner.

"More swords again…" Ode whispered under her breath. Did everybody have some kind of a sword? Subconsciously, her arms snaked around the older woman and held onto her tightly. This seemed to be out of fear from the last time a thin sword was only centimeters away from her face.

The katana wielders wore clothing that came from the east, with creepy masks hiding there faces. What seperated the pair of fighting warriors of Xing were the structure of the masks. The one holding a blade to Martel had a black Yin mark of the Yin-Yang symbol on their forehead. The other next to Ode had the Yang mark.

"You're of great importance?" The one called Lady questioned the prince.

" Guess you could say that." The xingese teen shrugged like he was intending on being modest but failing miserably.

"Heh, don't get me wrong. I'm not the type to run out on a fight." The snake chimera claimed. Her green eyes cast down on Ode then moved back to Ling, "But, I'm here to get the supplies and bring the kid back in one piece."

"Is that so?" Ling tilted his head like a dog somewhat intrigued by her response.

"Perhaps the next time around, we can have a decent battle, when I'm not in a hurry."

_What did she mean?_

For every memory Ode could remember they were considered an accomplishment according to the confused brown eyed girl. So when a memory rose in her thoughts from earlier always gave her a little flutter of joy. Pictures of her new boss came into view and words played inside.

"Make sure to catch the next train out of here, alright? It would be such a pain to have to wait until morning for you to arrive,"

"Oh, that's right we have to leave before we miss the train." Ode said out loud.

Ling had made a small connection to the girl. It was small, but none the less there was some kind of bond the two created when they spent a couple hours talking by the wall.

"Lan Fan, Fu." Ling Yao called to the defensive fighters. Both who shared the Yin-Yang symbold made some kind of a gesture before lowering the swords and moving away from them. "It was nice meeting you Ode. I hope to see you again soon, okay?" Ode couldn't help but exchange a warm and gentle smile back at her new squinty-eyed friend.

"Yeah. See you soon." With that being said, the girls ran off into the darkness to catch a late night train, leaving the trio of foreigners standing alone.

"What were you thinking young Lord?" the strong and independent, yet sweet protector named Lan Fan asked with concern. "What did you hope to gain from that girl?"

All Ling could do was give her the same warmth and kind smile he gave to his new friend. "I was hoping to find information on the Philospher Stone. But I guess I'll have to keep trying."


	4. The Devil's Nest

Chapter 4 "Devil's Nest"

Disclaimer I do not own anything involving Fullmetal Alchemist.

_The story starts out kinda like the 2003 anime, but it dissolves into the 2009 Brotherhood version. By the way, this little notice won't be going away until it's officially transitioned over. _

Also, once again thank you to all who reviewed. :)

**Enjoy the read!**

*******

A little bird stood perched on a branch of a spindly tree. Though this tree wasn't born from the soil of the rich earth, but rather looked like it was peeled off a sketchbook. The bark, the leaves, the outline; all were the colour of fresh black paint still wet from the watery brush. It twirled and smeared across the white background like it was a piece of art, with occasional splatter marks resting here or there.

"You left your cage. Do you have any idea on what to do next?" the bird sang. It scurried around the painted branch, making it extend out farther along the paper-like world.

"If there is one thing you can remember is I'll be watching you very closely. Ah, but don't flatter yourself, these eyes aren't for admiring! You're not important enough. Why do I watch you then? I'm simply waiting for the day to collect. Until then my dear, these eyes will see all." Suddenly the painted tree smeared deeper into the spindly tree, darkening every speck of white. And the only thing heard was the unusual bird singing a morbid tune.

***

"Runt, it's time to go. Wake up!" A pair of droopy eyes reluctantly opened wide to meet Martel's green ones. "If you sleep any longer we'll have to wait until the next stop."

"Oh, okay Lady," Ode yawned. Martel helped her sleepy comrade up from the secluded box car, and onto the morning dew grass. It took awhile for both girls to race away from the train, and blend in with the leaving passengers, but their sneaking techniques were a successful. Not a soul could confirm they got a free ride.

"Hey," Ode called.

"What?"

"Where are we again?"

"We're in Dublith. You've forgotten we are suppose to meet up with Greed and others too?" Martel jeered from ahead of the doddling pale girl.

"No, I haven't forgotten," she said. Her focus made its way up to the sky, as she was mesmerized by the true beauty of a starry night. But, the stars no longer shined playfully into the dark. They were gone.

Did—did it change colour?

Ode's cinnamon eyes traced along the wide-open space of dark sapphire, now mixed with a pale blue with shades of pink and orange. It didn't take long for her to spot what was responsible for the drastic change. It also didn't take long for her to be terrified of the glowing flame rising from behind the landscapes.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH WHAT IS THAT?!" she shrieked, pointing a finger towards the glow. "What is that? Is it gonna get us? What is that?" The older blonde was taken by surprise by the Jane Doe's next move. Ode leaped off the path and into the arms of a disoriented Martel, nearly choking her in the process.

"Calm down, Runt!" Martel ordered, trying to pry Ode off her body. "It's the sun, it won't get you—would you let go of me?" The frantic girl came to a stop at the word 'sun' and to Martel's appeasement loosened her tight snare on her neck.

"Oh, so…that's the…sun," There were times in the not too distant past, Ode would hear about astronomy. Some alchemists would talk about how hot the sun was that afternoon, or how they heard some city called…Loral, (or something like that) worshipped the sun as some kind of God. She learned it orbited around the world, and gave life to the outside world.

_The sun was precious._

"Come on we are wasting time."

"Alright Lady."

***

Lady was the first one to head down the steep stairway into the pub. A sign hanged above the entrance written in red bold letters that said 'The Devil's Nest'.

"Why did we end up here?" she sighed. Her right foot stepped down into the dark abyss, echoing along the staircase. Several more echoes followed shortly after the first one, in a fast pace, stopping when Ode reached the bottom. Ahead of the stairs was a smoky purple living area. Simple furniture littered around with an occupied bar on the opposite wall.

"It's about time you two got here," Dolcetto yelled, clarifying he was one of the occupants sitting at the counter, clutching some sort of beverage encased in his strong hand.

"What's that?" she inquired towards the red liquid swaying inside the glass.

"Huh, this?" he raised the glass higher into the air, only intriguing the Jane Doe further. "Here try it."

Dolcetto placed the drink into Ode's hand, and watched the young girl sip the alcoholic drink. He couldn't help but snicker at Ode's scrunched up nose, and her lips sneering at the glass like it was its fault for tasting so bad.

"I'd figured you wouldn't like it," he smirked, grasping his red drink out of the girls hold.

"Where's Lady?"

"She's somewhere. I'm sure she's talking to the boss in the back." He guessed, pointing his thumb over his shoulder.

'So there is more to this place.'

The teenager wandered away from the counter, ignoring whatever Dolcetto was saying, or intending to say and headed to the ominous doorway connecting to the hallway. Other doors were found along the hall with members from the group huddled in small groups talking, or walking past her. It was well light compared to her other home, giving off a welcoming feeling wherever she went.

If there was one thing she felt either in the Devil's Nest or trapped inside the cement prison walls; she was always curious about what was around unopened doors.

Ode stopped in front of one of the many doors, before grasping the bronze doorknob and lightly twisting it open. The door swung wide open, ending with a loud bang that vibrated down the hall. She didn't bother looking around to see if anyone noticed or not, after all, she did only open a door.

The brown eyed girl took a step into the room, scouting the whole room incase someone unfriendly lurked inside.

She waited.

Nothing.

The room was a plain bedroom with a semi-large bed in the middle, and a dresser shoved in the right corner. A few random boxes were piled up on the side, and the carpet seemed a bit dusty from the years of never being used. Aside from it needing to be cleaned up nothing else was wrong with it.

"This wasn't interesting at all." She frowned, standing next to bed, biting down on her pink lip.

"Are you sure you weren't fused with a cat?"

Ode spun around, gasping at the sudden voice right at the entrance. "Greed."

"That's right." Greed mused. He was leaning back against the door, casually grinning at her. "Have you been enjoying the outside world?"

Both corners of her mouth tugged sharply forming into gentle smile. "Yes, I still can't believe how amazing it is."

Greed watched her for a moment, then pushed himself off the wall, strolling on toward her. "That's good to hear, it makes me satisfied to know my possessions are happy."

'Possessions?' Ode was never called a possession before. It made her stomach knot in the most peculiar way. Why was that?

"Now listen, I know your memory is a bit off so here's a little tip for you. Consider the Devil's Nest as your new home," he stated, letting his hands fall onto Ode's shoulders. "But while you are here I suggest keeping your guard up, especially around the bar, understand?"

"I guess," She hesitantly said. "But, why do I need to keep my guard up?"

Greed's violet eyes flashed darkly down at the naïve girl. "Would you like a demonstration?" He took no time for her to respond as he forced her backwards, causing her to topple onto the bed. Ode's heart began to race rapidly against her chest, when she realized Greed towering over her. Her hands were pinned to the side of her head, unable to even shake wrists from the weight of his strong grip.

With a playful smirk, he leaned down, nearly connecting his lips to her neck. She could feel his breath graze against her skin, making her body shiver with immediate chills. Greed noticed a shade of red rising around the girl's checks and the bridge of her nose.

"We haven't even started and you're already blushing," he chuckled, now resting his lips on her sweet neck. "I'm interested to see how you will react if we go a little further…How about it sweetheart?"

'Go further? What does that mean? This isn't far?' Ode's became overwhelmed by the exotic tension she was experiencing. It was foreign; something she never knew existed. Was this some kind of game? He wouldn't make her play a game she was oblivious to, would he?

"Greed…" she whispered, catching his attention. "I don't want to play anymore." Greed only smiled into her neck, soon to lift the upper part of his body off her.

"Somehow I knew you would say that." He completely got off Ode and stood a foot away from the bed. "I may be greedy, but I have no intention of taking advantage of a woman like that."

Ode raised her body up from the laying position she was in to look at her strange boss. "Is that what could happen at the bar?" she asked

Greed released a grin and nodded his head. "Yeah, except in most cases if you ever get yourself into that kind of situation they won't be as nice as I was to you."

"So…keep my guard up, and this won't happen, right?"

He gave a small laugh, before patting the top of her head as if praising a child. "That's a good girl." Greed walked to the door, but turned around, just when he was about to leave the room. "And just remember, I'm the only one who can do that."

And with that being said Greed left.

"This day has been," Ode seemed to space off as many new memories rushed through her head. "…So bizarre."


	5. Child's Play

Chapter 5 "Childs Play"

Disclaimer: I do not own anything involving Fullmetal Alchemist.

_The story starts out kinda like the 2003 anime, but it dissolves into the 2009 Brotherhood version. By the way, this little notice won't be going away until it's officially transitioned over. _

I'm happy to say there will be more excitement in the next few chapters! Thank you so much for reading up to this point!

**Enjoy the read!**

***

Ode let out a yawn as she felt a pair of hands gently shake her from her pleasant sleep. A shadow lingered around her face through the dim lamps surrounding her room. She turned on her side to shield her face away from the shadow, attempting to snuggle deeper into the mahogany blanket draped across her body. She almost fell back asleep, but the same pair of hands slowly slid the blanket off her, and exposed her to the cold air.

Her eyes snapped open, gazing up at the one responsible for such sudden discomfort. A figure with blond hair, a tight black tank top, and a light purple tattoo stretching around her arm came into view.

"Sorry to wake you," Martel breathed. Ode fell onto her back again to see the snake chimera better, and gave a sweet smile.

"I keep waking up to you, don't I?" she responded, causing Martel to release a small laugh with a warm smile to match.

"Greed has a job for you to do today," she explained, as she sat down on Ode's bed. "So get ready otherwise he'll be annoyed with both of us."

"Can I eat first?" the two colour haired girl asked in an airy voice.

As if on cue Martel rummaged through her pocket to retrieve a fresh ripe apple, gleaming brilliantly in her hand.

"Here." She tossed the fruit underhand to Ode; which she snatched happily in one move.

"Thank you."

Although Ode knew how to take care of herself during the past couple weeks, there were times she became dependant on Lady. A particular dependence was getting her breakfast in the morning. Martel was quite reluctant at first to continue such silly traditions, but after creating a tight bond with the young girl, it didn't bother her so much.

"You can eat that on the way out, everyone is waiting."

"I keep being rushed away by you, too." She said candidly, before sinking her teeth into the luscious apple.

When the pair entered the main room, a few chimeras were waiting nonchalantly by the bar. There were a few second stare downs and nods coming from the adults, confirming to the other they were ready to depart.

'_Turns out I'm not the only one who has a job to do today.'_

"Ah good, everyone's here," Greed spoke, as he walked towards his henchmen. "We're heading into town to do a little investigating. There's a rumor going around about a new kind of immortality, and I'm curious to know the whole story." It wasn't hard to mistake: Behind those rounded sunglasses, Greed's eyes were filled with an obsessing desire.

Roa, Dolcetto, Lady, and the others who Ode never really knew the names of, moved instinctively to the stairway, leading out of the Devil's Nest.

'_Oh, I thought I had a different—oh well. I guess I'm going with them…'_

With no questions asked Ode finished the last of her apple, and then followed the small group, swiftly passing her comrades, including Greed.

"Now wait a second, Ode," Greed said, clasping the back of her collar, and pulling her backwards.

'…_Or not.'_

"What's wrong?" she said nervously.

"Nothing's wrong, unless you were intending on coming with us." He said smugly. Greed raised his hand, gesturing to those who stayed behind to head up to the surface without him.

"But, didn't you—what?" Ode turned her head to the door and back up at Greed. "What?!"

The cocky homunculus simply smirked as he watched the flustered girl continue to give him puzzled expressions. "I have a different job for you to do." He finally said.

Ode's eyes softened. "Okay, what is it?"

"I want you to go out and have some fun."

Ode didn't register what he told her at first. She wasn't even sure she heard it properly. The order was too easy, not to mention…so anti-climatic.

"That's it? No spying? No errands to go get?" she questioned, unsure if he too understood what he just told her.

"Tell you what. If you follow this little whim, I'll give you some kind of a reward. Does that sound fair?" he suggested, ignoring her previous remarks and leaning foreword to be at eye level with the teen.

"Yes." She replied calmly. "May I ask what if I was to refuse?"

Ode knew how daring that question was, yet she was curious to see the outcome of such defiance.

She noticed the hand with the red tattoo bawl up into a fist, his mood changing from a friendly vibe to a dark and irritated one.

"Well then I would become cross with you, and I can guarantee you will endure a punishment." Greed's normal charming voice was now laced with an icy threat, causing Ode's blood to run cold, and chills to run up her arms.

'_I see. This job is far more important than what you're leading me to believe. Your tone just said everything.'_

"What's it going to be?"

'_Did her really have to ask?' _Ode hurried over to the stairway without a word. She didn't need to say anything for him to know what choice she made.

When they both reached the top, the spiky haired leader started briefing the chimera on what they were supposed to do.

"I want you back before sunset." He stated firmly to the still disturbed Ode. In return she gave a nod and carried a fox-like smile on her lips.

***

Greed spied on the young girl until she was completely out of his range of sight. She was interesting girl, as he never met a girl like her in the past two hundred years. And just like how she was different from other woman, she needed to be treated differently than other woman as well.

It was expected she would develop social problems, along with several more quarks than the other prisoners, since unlike them; she spent a great deal of her younger years inside those damn labs.

He didn't mind teaching the girl how to survive in the real world; in fact it was the perfect way to mold her into what he wanted. But in the mean time he would have to take baby steps with Ode, until he could finally use her to his advantage.

"So, what job did you decide to give her?" Dolcetto asked.

The greedy homunculus smiled in amusement, while turning on his heel in the opposite direction, moving onward. "I told her to go and entertain herself."

In what way is that a job?" Martel inquired a bit too sharply.

"The way I see it, Ode will probably meet kids around her age. And when she does there's a chance she will learn a little about this rumor. This way I can get all the information I need, even from the younger minority." Greed answered smoothly.

"But what if she doesn't meet anyone?" Bido chimed in, concern rising in his voice.

"Yeah, and say she was to meet some brats, you can't really think they would know something like that." Dolcetto added.

Greed stopped in his tracks for a moment, and spun his body towards the gang. "You have a point there, but there's something about that girl. She tends to be lucky when she's alone. Just have a little faith…I trust she will bring back something interesting."

***

Once again Ode found herself all alone on the streets, and there was an unlikely chance Ling Yao of Xing would show up like last time. She tried multiple things to remove her boredom for the past hour. All failed miserably, leaving her anxious and frustrated about the whole idea of having 'fun.'

"What do people do for fun?" she murmured, while subconsciously placing her hand under her chin.

Just the something bopped against her foot, grabbing her attention away from all thought. Ode peered down to find a dirt covered ball resting near the rim of her dress.

"Hey, pass the ball!" Ode whipped her head up, and averted her gaze to the source of the yelling. A bunch of small children were all standing in an open lot, each one waiting to start their game up.

'_Are they talking to me?'_

"C'mon girly, we want our ball back!" a child cried out.

The brown eyed girl crouched down slowly, still unsure if they were calling her. She pointed to the ball in front of her, while some of the kids nodded vigorously, verifying they were talking to her.

"Stop messing around, we wanna play!"

Play? As in doing a type of entertainment…a kind of fun?

Instead of throwing the ball like the kids assumed, Ode made her way over to them with their ball still clutched in both hands.

"What are you playing?" she asked.

"Kickball," a little boy said, quickly ripping the ball out of her grip.

"Tommy that was rude!" a girl whined to the boy.

"She wouldn't give the ball back!" Tommy countered, his voice cracking through mid-sentence.

"It doesn't matter, now apologize or I'm telling mom!"

Ode blinked a couple times. She had no idea what was going on. The boy called Tommy muttered a sheepish apology to her, but the question was why? Was this a child trait?

Throughout her time with Greed, she never heard a single 'sorry' come out of anyone's mouth for being rude.

"Can we play now?" yet another boy called out.

Wait. She wanted to play!

"May I play, too?" Ode said innocently. All the children turned to the person next to them in bewilderness.

"You serious?" Tommy replied, cocking an eyebrow up.

"Yes. It seems like fun." She smiled down to the kids, hoping they would accept, and allow her to play the kickball. Tommy searched the crowd for his friend's opinions. No one looked to have objected.

"Alright, you can play. You can be on Allie's team." He said in a dull tone.

The girl Ode believed to be Allie took her hand and guided her to the field, where she would take part in a children's game.

But first she needed to learn how to play…

***

With a hard kick, the ball was off the ground, tasting the blue sky. The laughter of kids abruptly invaded the area, as bases were passed in a racing frenzy. Ode was in charge of guarding second base for her team, which she so far was doing a good job at.

"Tag her, tag her, tag her!" one of the kids screamed at the top of his lungs! A sudden shriek of hysterics pierced Ode's ears, as the girl was tagged and was out.

The game went on for a good deal of time before it was Ode's turn to kick the ball, perhaps giving her team a point. She watched the ball rolled across the field, before starting up into a run.

**SLAM!**

The ball went flying high and far away from the kids. Ode dashed to the other base while watching fall down from above. Unfortunately the dusty ball didn't land on the street, but on top of a persons head. It bounced off in another direction after impact, while the person's head went the opposite direction.

Ode stopped mid way to first base, as she realized what she had done.

"Did that guys…head just fly off?" Allie questioned in disbelief.

"…."

"…."

"…."

"…You killed him." Tommy stated in a matter-of- fact way.

"Is that bad?" Ode inquired, tilting her head slightly to the left.

"Huh? Of course it is!! What's wrong with you, did you grow up underground?!"

"Yes."

"Al! Are you alright?" Their attention was caught by a new male voice. A blonde teen, wearing a black outfit and a red coat was kneeling down beside the dead person in a suit of armor. The blonde was taller than the little ones but he still wasn't very tall compared to someone around his age.

He's so tiny.

"Hey you brats! Get over here so I can teach you some manners!" the blonde shouted.

"RUN AWAY, EVERY MAN FOR HIMSELF!!"

The buzz of screams engulfed the joyful atmosphere, as children sped off down the streets and alleys. Ode only stood there oblivious to why all of them were running away. She then looked over to young male. He moved from the ground and was now sprinting straight towards Ode.

'_Run…run…RUN!!' _

She suddenly felt the adrenaline rush through her body, and immediately bolted out of the area just like the kids.

"Hold on, you get back here!" he shouted again. For a boy with short legs he could run fast.

This was not how Ode wanted t her day would turn out. She never thought she would be out in town being chased by a blonde male in a red coat.

What else could happen?

***

Huzzah, it's finally done!! I wanted to get this out as early as possible so you guys could read it. Now that my work is complete I can relax.

Like I said the next few chapters are going to be exciting and intense!


	6. Greed's Success

Chapter 6

"Greed's Success"

Disclaimer: I do not own anything involving Full Metal Alchemist.

**To those who reviewed you guys are amazing. **

On another note: I am so sorry about the long wait! March was extremely busy so I couldn't post anything like I hoped I could. The next one will be out sooner I promise!!!!

**Enjoy the read! **

***

Ode's gasping breath was all she could hear as she raced ahead, forcing her legs to keep sprinting away from the red coat chaser. With very little paths she could take through the alleyways she was running out of new turns to throw him off her trail.

"He-he just doesn't. Give. Up!" she panted heavily, while sneaking a subtle glance behind her. He was close, and by the look in his fierce burning eyes, he was determined.

'Why? He has nothing to gain by coming after me.'

She weaved around a connecting alleyway, stumbling on her charcoal dress that flailed around her feet in the process. To her regret the alleyway was longer than the other one she turned off, and it seemed nearly impossible for her to reach the other side, with the same consistent speed she was using.

"Hey, I'm getting really tired of this cat and mouse game!" The blonde shouted. A soft whimper escaped from Ode as she reluctantly sped off down the path.

Before she even made it halfway, the eerie echoes of a clap chimed across the grey musty walls, suddenly warping them into an unusual state. Both opposing buildings stretched out to connect to each other, and blocked Ode's only exit. When it came into view, she stuck her hands out in front of her, letting them smack against the new wall to stop her running pace. She leaned her weight on both of her supporting limbs, while giving her bleeding throat a chance to take in the cool air.

"You never would have been able to get away with that kind of method," the blonde explained, now standing next to Ode's bent over form. "If you kept running straight, rather than making those turns, you wouldn't have run out of breath so early."

"Good to know." Ode puffed.

After waiting patiently for her breathing to return to normal, the golden-eyed teen grabbed hold of Ode's upper arm and pulled her into a straightened position. "Exactly how old are you, anyway?" He asked, finally taking a good look at the girl's round face.

"Sixteen," she breathed. The golden boy stiffened abruptly; she could feel his hands on her arm tighten. Ode peered at him with puzzlement to find why he was uneasy. She was leaning almost completely on him.

"Well then you shouldn't be acting like a kid," he scowled, taking a few cautious steps away, leaving a decent gap in between the teens.

He was a curious boy. Although he was fairly short for his age, he had a highly mature appearance. The blonde in his hair was a darker honey shade than Ode's, and blended beautifully with the sun like gold irises framing his facial features. But what was truly unique about him was the silver metal limb he concealed under his red coat. She noticed the hard element by chance; for whenever she spotted him inch closer by during the chase, a fragment of the smooth mechanical arm peeped out through the cloth and his white glove.

It even emphasized his physically fit form. His muscles were transparent under his clothes, but they bared no completion compared to her boss, Greed's fatigue. Then again the young blonde doesn't need a reason to get stronger physically, since he can pull that trick with moving material to subdue his foes.

'That trick.'

"The walls. You're an alchemist," she said, as the two left the abyss of shadows from the alley's, and on the radiant side walk.

His mouth widened to reply, but paused at the sound of a tenor voice. "Brother! I found you!"

They both turned; a towering suit of armour trudged near them, waving an arm in the air. To Ode's surprise it was the same person she believed to have killed with the ball.

"There you are. Did you find your head okay?" the smaller brother asked, seeing the odd sharpened helmet returned on his shoulders.

"Mmhm," Al nodded. "It landed by the trash cans. Who's this brother?"

"This," the alchemist began coldly, as he yanked Ode foreword to accent the word. "Is the girl who kicked the ball!"

It was then Ode's eyes widened from a sudden euphony. She recalled watching someone with a similar body patrol the premises during her time in her old home. Though instead of a scribbled mouth, and a white ribbon sticking out at the top, the guard wore a mask of an animal skull, along with white fur flowing down his back.

"Do you have something to say?" The blonde inquired demandingly. Ode stayed silent as she rose on her tiptoes while extending her free arm out and grasping the white ribbon dangling from the head gracefully. Her next movement matched the agility of a lightning bolt flashing luminously for a second in the dark sky. She swiftly wrenched off his helmet, bringing it down to her height. The boys could only stand there in astonishment, completely speechless.

Her eyes softened from what she found. Inside the armour was nothing else but a bloody bronzy symbol etched in where the shoulder blades of a human should meet, making it quite an interesting discovery on her part.

"What the hell!" Ode was harshly pulled towards the furious golden teen. "You got some nerve!"

"He's like the other two." Ode spoke in a calm tone. The alchemist froze.

"What other two?" he asked suspiciously.

"The two guardian soldiers that inspected that labs every night. Well. No. Only one did. The other use to torment the other people." Ode became enticed into the memories of the old serial killer who threatened to chop her girly skin into little bits. He did try to frighten her multiple times, but his enthusiastic rants made it impossible.

"Does that mean you lived in lab five?" The soft spoken brother intervened.

"Yes. How did you know that?"

"That information is classified. Only the military know about the soldiers and the prisoners inside. The only way a regular citizen could know about it is if they were victims themselves." The other brother said.

"I am not a victim."

"Start talking. What is your relationship with the transmuted souls and lab five?" he seethed.

She didn't know how to answer that.

"If you could, would you ever ask a bird how his day was?" Ode smiled.

"What?!" the alchemist burst, completely baffled at her random approach.

"If you could, would you ever ask a bird how his day was?" she repeated with a little more emphasis on each word.

"That's the dumbest question I've ever heard!"

"I disagree, I think it's one of the best questions ever heard."

"Ed, yelling at her won't do any good." Al protested.

"Talking quietly won't do any good either Al! So what do you suggest we do?"

Was this normal for siblings to quarrel on like that? Ode was a little disoriented, but she observed their bickering until she noticed they were no longer paying attention to her. She took that opportunity and robotically turned around and did what others would consider inappropriate.

She walked away.

***

The rays of sun finally seeped down past the horizons leaving a pink blush in the blue diamond night sky. Many of the street lamps absorbed the shadows of the town, and showered its light on the baking cement. It was this time Ode returned to the Devil's Nest from the grassy fields, where she hid among the deep hills of green to avoid encountering the alchemist and his brother again. She scurried down the steps of her home, finding the others fanned out in the main room with a few new faces dwelling as well.

Greed was easily the first one she noticed out of the bunch, as his company resided on both sides of him on the couch in the center of the room. They were both rather easy on the eyes and both wearing detailed and skimpier dresses than Ode's plain black one. The pixie haired brunette with a shorter black dress was smiling seductively up at the boss, while running her hands up and down his chest. The other long haired blonde seemed to just be holding his drink, yet still pleasing him with sweet words.

Greed bared his infamous grin playfully to the two older women, casually resting his toned arms around the women, with his feet crossing on the coffee table. He would chuckle some when the pretty blonde snuck a soft secret into his ear, and then connect her lips barely on his jaw.

Ode immediately reached for her neck at sudden memories of when Greed graced the same gestures on her pale skin. She could almost feel the tickling hot breath and warm lips travel on her throat. She wondered if he learned that stomach knotting trick from her very own gender. He did do a lot of interesting moves to the women that always draped over him; eve effecting Ode who simply watched. At times a heated sensation rose in her cheeks and the bridge of her nose that turned the milky coloured face to a deep cherry red.

"My, my, looks like they're allowing younger girls to access pubs so late at night now," the pixie brunette chimed, cocking an eyebrow at Ode. Greed's gaze wandered over to her direction, and she sheepishly gave a wave to her leader.

"Welcome back, Ode." Greed smirked, removing his feet off the table, then hoisting his slouched form to a normal sitting position.

"I followed your orders," she replied brightly, taking a few steps towards the coffee table.

"Excellent. Did anything amusing happen?" He inquired, focusing his attention on his worker and ignoring his play toys.

"I suppose. I played kickball with some children, but—"

"Oh please, that's exciting? That's child's play!" The blonde in the elegant strapless brown dress sneered rudely.

"Seriously, girly haven't you grown up yet? You can't learn to enjoy the pleasure of life until you take that step to maturity," the pixie girl agreed.

"Now ladies, no need to get hostile," Greed cooed, adding a bit of charm in his voice. Ode's eyes narrowed to a cold stare, as a new emotion she hadn't felt in so long boiled her blood and stung her heart like needles.

"You're prostitutes," she said bluntly, almost sounding like a question, but not quite.

"Excuse me?" the pixie girl spat.

Ode folded her arms in front of her, looking out in another direction. "A prostitute: one who expects payment for some sort of sexual act. That's what you are," her eyes shot back at the women, "Am I wrong to believe that?"

Both of the woman reacted with a look of pure disgust at the very thought of being related to selling their bodies for money.

"How dare you little brat! I would never sink so low!"

"Really? Alright then," she spoke, "Then you must be whores, or sluts: dirty women who have very loose morals. For you see, when you said I must grow up in order to enjoy the pleasures of life you meant to use my body for doing such actions. Previous actions with Greed showed me this is what you meant after all. So, instead of playing a child's game that I've never played before…I think. No. Yes. No, no, I haven't, okay! Anyway, the point is you expect me to become a whore so when I look in a mirror, I will feel the same rotting hatred for the person reflecting back. That way you won't feel you're not alone in the world, and not the only one who feels the need to find love through physical events. Am I somewhat close to understanding about what you're thinking?"

Ode had an expression of innocence on her features, though her voice betrayed the look.

After a long pause between the arguing females, Greed laughed loudly, breaking the heat of the moment into tiny shards.

"That's an impressive speech there sweetheart. I didn't know you had it in you to stand up for yourself," he complimented, causing Ode to release a warm smile.

"You're actually siding with _her?!_" the blonde girl snapped, snarling up at him which kidnapped her beauty for a second.

"Yes, and if you have a problem with it I suggest you find company somewhere else," he stated removing his arms from the woman.

The two looked at each other before rising together and departing the Devil's Nest, exchanging a venomous glare at Ode as they walked by her.

"Why did you let them leave?" she asked.

Greed flashed her a cocky smirk, "Because I found a special girl who interests me more than those women." He held out an arm to her, to which she approached him and grasped his hand. He pulled her over, and had her sit next to him, pulling her close so there were a couple inches between them.

"Tell me, when did you learn about prostitutes and whores?"

"From Lady. She was mad the other night, and she started lecturing about how they have loose morals. I asked her about it, and she told me. Most of the information I said to the women were direct quotes from Lady," she admitted.

Ode wasn't an idiot, as she understood to an extent what whores were before she questioned her Lady. She knew activities whores do involved 'jumping on the bed' and other uses of the body, however she had no idea on how exactly it was done.

"I see. Now tell me about what you did today," Greed said.

"But, the ladies said it was silly." Ode started to move away from Greed, averting her eyes to the door the women had just left. Greed however, didn't allow her to continue any further and quickly snatched her arm with his right arm to draw her back, while his left arm cupped part of Ode's face and pushed her head back to gaze into his sunglass covered eyes.

"To hell with them, and what they think," he spoke, rubbing her now burning blushed cheek with his thumb, "I want to know what you did, and I want to know now."

Ode sighed as she didn't have much of a choice at this point, and angering Greed was the last thing she wished to do.

"I played kickball with some children, though I accidently kicked a guys head off," she frowned.

"You mean you killed someone?"

"No, not killed. He put his head back on. I guess he can't die or something, due to a blood seal of some sort." Greed's hearing perked up, as a chill ran throughout his rock like body.

"He can't die? As in he's immortal?" he asked, listening intently at every word she was saying.

"I'd imagine so. He was like the metal men in the labs."

Greed fell into deep thought, causing a realization to reach the surface of his desires. Before doing anything else he leaned in to the cinnamon eyed girl and kissed her forehead with endearment. "That's my girl."

He knew she would be useful.

"Bido, you're coming with me!" he called, catching the attention of the grey lizard chimera who was hanging by the bar.

"But why boss?" Bido frowned.

"I need your talents of investigating." Greed let go of Ode and stood up with a smug smirk, "Come along Ode."

"Why?"

"I still need that luck of yours," he quickly lifted her up by her arm off the couch, "Besides I need to hold my end of the deal. I did say I would give you a reward."

***

Okay, I hope you liked it. Once again I am sorry about the delay, and I promise the next one will be out much faster. I felt a little uneasy with Greed at the end, but maybe that's just me. The next one IS going to be epic, not to mention a certain tragedy that many are familiar with is coming.


	7. Al's Downfall

Chapter 7 "Al's Downfall"

Disclaimer: I do not own anything involving Full Metal Alchemist.

**Shout outs to the reviewers~ thank you all so much for reviewing; it truly makes me happy to know people are enjoying this.**

**To BladesofCrimson**~ I just want to personally say thank you for reviewing, and for the support. All your reviews make me smile, and I get excited whenever I get one from _you._ :) Thanks for being wonderful.

**To Huntress0601, HitsugayaFanGirl, ChoaticChild, 4shadowedice4, and MochaLuLu~** 0.0 I'm actually quite surprised you guys reviewed. I haven't updated in about 4 months, but you still expressed interest in the story. If you guys hadn't reviewed, this story would most likely still be dead. So, really, thank you.

**To Zamaya~ **….yeahhhhhhh I know I said it would be quick. Sorry about that, but look! New chapter! Yay!

**And last but not least to MewCinda, StabbyThings, and Cthullhu Gan Chan~ **I appreciated the reviews guys, and sorry that it took me so long to get this done! I hope I can make it up to you with this chapter.

**On Another Note: ** Yeah….Guys, I'm really sorry it took soo long. A whole 4 months! But you know…It was summer. And I had been working on some a Kuroshitsuji series. But the good news is I'm back! So here you go!

**Enjoy the read!**

_Ode looked into the nearest closed store window, as Greed and Bido discussed certain arrangements that were to happen that night. There were a few fancy objects resting on plush red pillows on display on the other side of the chilling glass. Some were sparkling stones imbedded in silver bands, while others were in gold, and looked like they would dangle around if they were lifted from the pillows. Every one of them was simply beautiful in their own way. She remembered seeing several women enter the Devil's Nest wearing these objects on their hands, wrists, and neck. There was something about those shining stones…were they valuable? While she continued to eye such elegant items, another interesting thing caught her eye. _

_It was another girl…No, it wasn't. It was her. She had only seen herself once before through a reflection, although she seemed a little different. The girl in the glass had a tad bit longer hair then from what she recalled last time. _

'_How odd…'_

"_Found something you like, sweetheart?" Greed's voice whispered in her ear, his arms slowly coiling themselves around her shoulders in a possessive motion. _

'_I guess Bido went off on his mission.' She thought, soon noticing his absence. _

"_Not really, I'm looking at myself," she responded, completely unfazed by the sudden contact. Greed stared at the glass as well, finding the young girls brown eyes scanning up and down the reflection to be amusing._

"_You don't normally get a chance to see yourself, do you?"_

"_Is that bad?"_

_He smirked, "It depends, really." _

_Ode watched from the reflection as his strong arms released her, and stepped a foot away from the window._

"_Depends on what?" she asked, turning away from the girl in the glass to look at him. _

"_On what kind of woman you are." _

_Ode tilted her head to the left, causing a soft chuckle to come from the avarice sin. He extended his hand out; to which she took without a second though, and guided her to stand in front of him. _

"_I mean, there are some women who just enjoy getting dolled up, and if there isn't mirror, things tend to get ugly."_

'_Dolled up?' _

_Out of nowhere, Greed began to chuckle again._

_What was so funny? She didn't say anything that could be humorous. Perhaps it was her face? But then, what was wrong with her face? She didn't like this. _

"_Ah, my sweet Ode, that pretty face of yours is going to get into trouble someday," he mused darkly. _

_Before Ode could respond with another question, Greed's hand reached up to her pale face, and laced his fingers under her chin, forcing her to keep her eyes on the homunculus's own unnatural ones. _

"_It's such a shame how little you know," he breathed, while his free hand snaked around Ode's waist. "If you knew a little more about the games I play…"_

_The brown eyed girl stood frozen in Greed's grip, as a rush of heat rose up to her cheeks, colouring them a deep crimson. She recognized this feeling from awhile ago… when he was on top of her. But, it seemed this time it was much more intensified, why was that?_

_Greed's fingers slowly traced her jaw line, and made their way down her neck, massaging it gently. _

"_Greed," she spoke, only to have him ignore her, and focus on her throat. _

_Ode could barely breathe, and it wasn't because of his hand on her neck; it was as if the air was thickening..._

'_Why do I feel dizzy?'_

"…_We could be having so much fun right now." He was becoming bolder with her. Greed leaned in closer, his lips almost brushing against hers._

_Ode swallowed hard, hoping to slacken her now tight throat. Greed took that moment to stop massaging her tender neck, and let his fingers roam downward to her collarbone. _

_She didn't understand. She never understood, and it was becoming a nuisance…He was so close to her. What was the point in doing this? She knew the last time he was like this, it was to teach her to never allow anyone to get on top of her, except for him. But this was different. _

_Ode looked into Greed's lovely eyes for an answer. They were always different, but at the same time they were the same. Those eyes truly told her at times what he was thinking. Though other times, she had no idea. Maybe it was because he was showing a new emotion to Ode. An emotion she never knew that existed, or didn't understand. _

"_Greed," she repeated heavily. She was just barely an inch away from his lips, "What are you doing?" _

"_I'm just curious." Greed lowered his traveling hand, nearing dangerously close to the edge of her round curves. And then…_

_He stopped. _

_Quickly, Greed ran his hand back up to her face, pulling his head back, and giving Ode just enough space to move her head around. _

"_Now, what do you want for your reward?" he inquired._

_Ode was stunned. What just happened?_

"_What?"_

_The homunculus brushed his thumb lightly over her red cheeks, "What is it that you want?"_

_What I want? Ode paused for a second, thinking it over. _

"_I want…"_

"Runt snap out of it!"

"Huh?" Ode glanced around her surroundings, as she was pulled away from her deep thoughts. The memories from last night were still fresh in her head, and they refused to leave her mind for a second.

"Sorry Lady," she muttered.

"Why are you blushing?" Lady asked, raising an eyebrow at the young girl in annoyance.

"I don't know," she responded back in her usual blunt tone. The snake chimera opened her mouth in protest, but stopped as Dolcetto's voice called out from above them.

"He's here," he stated from the rooftop of the Devil's Nest, "And he's alone."

"Just do your best to stay out of the way, and no more daydreaming," Lady seethed.

"Okay Lady," Ode obeyed.

Dolcetto jumped off the roof and joined the rest of the group, while everyone waited for the immortal suit of armour to come strolling on by. This mission was more for Dolcetto, Roa, and Lady however; Greed believed Ode should remain with them in case her 'luck' would be useful to the chimeras, whatever that meant.

Suddenly all the chimeras heads turned in the same direction. It didn't take long for Ode's human ears to hear what the others heard earlier. The sound of clanking metal echoed down the back alley, even catching the attention of a few stray mice scurrying along the narrow pathway.

Finally the metal armour came into view of the soon-to-be-kidnappers and started the chimeras mission.

"We know your secret, come to the Devil's Nest," the boy recited once he was close enough to the group, "Are you the ones who know my secret?"

"Yeah that's us," Dolcetto confirmed confidently, "We know all sorts of things."

"I'd like to know my secrets, too." The suit of armour said.

"Then let's make it simple. Come with us." Dolcetto said, walking casually up to the boy with a friendly smile.

"But my teacher told me never to go anywhere with strangers," he protested.

"How old are you?" Dolcetto asked with a frown.

"Fourteen."

"Fourteen is old enough to think and act for yourself, right? You can't be listening to your teacher forever."

"Oh, right. I should think for myself!" The young boy enthused.

"That's right! Now come with us—" Dolcetto was interrupted by a metal fist slamming hard into his cheek, his body spiraling down to the ground with a loud thud.

"After thinking it over, I've decided to fight you guys and ask you what my secret is."

Ode blinked. "I don't think that was supposed to happen."

"Hey, you're the girl from before!" The armour spoke, pointing one of his fingers directly at Ode.

"Oh, ummmm—yes?" she said, unsure if what she said was correct.

"You ran off last time…So, you work with these guys?"

"She's with us," Martel replied.

Just then Dolcetto lifted off the ground, unsheathing his silver gleaming sword. "Looks like were doing this by force."

Before he could advance, the boy rammed his fist into the dog chimeras face again. He was thrown back, but swiftly stuck the end of his sword deep into the suit of armour, flinging it away from the rest of the body. Lady sprang into action, using her snake-like abilities and jumping onto the armour.

"Sorry about this kid," Lady announced, slithering deep in the suit of armour.

The armoured boy frantically swayed its arms around, as his body moved around in a dancing like frenzy. "Get out, get out! It's so creepy having inside my body!"

Roa ended the squirming dance by gripping tightly on the metal arm of the boy, and flipped him over, landing hard on the cement.

"Nice job on distracting him doll."

Ode nearly jumped a foot up in the air at the new presence standing right by her.

"Greed."

"You really are lucky," he praised, patting her on the top of her head.

Ode's face burned up from the touch. It wasn't like last night, but…why was she embarrassed?

"But I didn't do anything." The leader dropped his arm from her head, before walking over to his minions surrounding the target, ignoring Ode's last comment.

"Just what are you people?" the weak voice of the boy asked desperately.

"They're chimeras," Greed chimed in, as he bent over to pick up the helmet Dolcetto flung off, "And they work for me."


	8. His Flaws

Chapter 8 His flaws

Disclaimer: I do not own anything involving Full Metal Alchemist. A lot of the dialogue in this chapter comes from the anime FMA: Brotherhood episode 13.

**History Lesson Note:**So, before anyone comes to me complaining about how hair dye didn't exist in the early 20th century, well just so you know, it actually did exist at the time period. In fact, it's been around since at least the Renaissance era. Also, in 1907 a French chemist named Eugene Schueller created the first synthetic hair dye to be sold, thus creating that famous company L'Oreal. It wasn't very popular, but in conclusion, it existed.

**Enjoy the read!**

"Cool, you're actually hollow," Greed observed, as his eyes glanced inside the boy's armoured body. He set the helmet back on top of the metal suit, and took a step back to fully study the body as a whole.

"Were you expecting something different?" Greed tilted his head to the right, smirking at the girl sitting comfortably on a stack of tacky dark chocolate coloured milk crates.

"Why, no Ode; he's exactly the way I pictured him."

Her cinnamon brown eyes sparkled serenely at him, throwing the greedy homunculus off a bit from his main focus. Ever since the moment he first laid eyes on Ode, he thought her eyes were quite pretty, but seeing her irises glinted in subtle joy, the word 'pretty' became an understatement. Her once frosty snow skin was now a light olive tone, softening up her brown eyes, instead of awkwardly sharpening them. It appeared that all she really needed was a kiss from the sun on her skin, in order to fully complete her true natural look...Well almost natural. Being born with black and blonde hair was highly unlikely, and it was out of the question to wonder if she had it dyed at some point.

'Maybe she _was_ a lab rat.' He pondered to himself. Any other day Greed would let that thought sit in his mind for awhile, but right now he had more important secrets to unfold.

He averted his gaze back down to the chained up boy, noticing how patient he was for someone who had been kidnapped. Greed respected that.

"The names Greed," he smiled, pressing his tattooed hand over his chest, "And, I want to be your friend."

"Then why don't you tell me what you people really are," the boy bravely spoke, "You're not chimeras. It's impossible; no one's made a chimera that can talk."

Chimera's were impossible? Oh how wrong that kid was. A bit of pride swelled up inside the avarice creature's chest, as he adjusted his sunglasses. So, there were some things this child didn't know.

"You can't believe everything the government tells you, kid." Greed said, as he crouched down to the boy's level, and started to tap against the boys shoulder.

"You got all the proof you need right inside you. The girl in there is part snake." He then proceeded to introduce him to all the other members, "And this big guy here…Roa what were you made with? Cow?"

"Yeah," the tall bulky chimera agreed, nodding his head.

"We've also got a lizard, a spider, and a crocodile. And the little guy you took down earlier, tends to lift his leg when he pee's." the leader joked.

"It was only that one time!" Dolcetto barked, shaking his clenched fists around in an angry fit. Greed knew he hated it whenever someone brought up that stupid story, but it amused him to see the dog chimera spazz out.

"You're part dog?" The armoured boy asked in awe.

"Yup! It's really not so bad," the dog proudly said, regaining his composure within a second.

The armoured boy was about to spew another skeptical question, but noticed a dangling black shoe swaying right next to his head, in the corner of his red eye. Following up the shoe he saw a worn out black dress with a couple holes forming at the bottom, two hands laced neatly in a lap, a few silver dirty buttons, and finally the face of teen gawking down at him.

Judging by the gleam in his eyes, he must have been wondering what species she was…

"…What about her?" The boy asked, gesturing up towards the other girl towering above the two on the milk crates. "She's made out of an animal that has stripes, right? That's why her hair is two different colours?"

Greed allowed his tinted sunglasses to slide down the bridge of his nose, as he peered up at a confused Ode staring at the boy and then back at him.

Just like always, that special girl of his didn't know what was going on.

"Actually, that girl is human," he said, never taking his vibrant purple eyes off her, "But just cause she's human it doesn't make her any less stranger than the rest of us."

The idea of talking chimeras still hadn't sunk in to the soft spoken boys mind…he couldn't register this fact…at least he didn't want to.

"I don't believe it…It's not possible. Who would even be capable of creating one?" He whispered.

"The military," Greed answered, displaying an ominous tone in his voice.

"You say…"

"You got it. There's a shadow world beneath yours, that's jammed packed with the impossible. Hell, I'm more uncommon than they are."

Greed flipped the back of his palm upward, revealing his blood red ouroboros tattoo to his immortal captive. "I'm a homunculus."

"A homunculus?"

"You know what that means, right? I'm an artificial created human." His voice was no louder than a whisper, but each word felt like a dark chilling threat, strengthening his eerie grin. "Really, no joke."

The armoured boy stayed silent. Greed could only imagine what was streaming through that hollow head of his, while he waited for a reaction.

"You're lying!" The kid accused. Greed frowned, he wasn't expecting that. "A homunculus is just a theory, nobodies made one!"

Damnit. The kid would not budge. He was refusing to accept the reality of homunculi, and it was getting bothersome. It seemed that words weren't going to be good enough. In order to convince the kid that artificial humans were real he needed a different strategy. Perhaps a physical demonstration?

How annoying.

"Aww man," Greed mumbled, as he stood back up, and pulled his pair of sunglasses off his face. "Guess I gotta prove it to you."

Without another word, Roa lifted his large metal hammer up with his strong arms. The boy watched intently with wide eyes, as the unthinkable occurred.

Roa swung the hammer with great force, and rammed it dead on to Greed's head. The boy gasped. An instant explosion of a dark crimson blood splashed from the leader's body, and onto the cement. The scent of fresh iron liquid wafted the air, and a ghastly sound of a ripped flesh slammed hard against the new pool of blood on the floor. The boy stared in terror at the sickening corpse laid sprawled right in front of him, with his head just mere inches away from the neck.

If anyone had found their eyes upon Ode, they would have seen her expression was warped in utter fear. Her eyes began to shake along with her weak body, unable to wrench her gaze away from her now dead boss.

"Why'd you do that to him?" the horror filled boy asked, his voice a pitch higher than it usually was.

Before an answer was made, several red lightning bolts were jolting around Greed's corpse frantically, while his left hand moving upward with a finger pointed up. The body soon rose to its feet, and the top of the being started to regenerate bones and a heap of red flesh he lost not a moment ago. The skin surfaced the top, as well as his eyes and spikey hair. It was like he never was hit by the heavy object.

With a sigh, Greed cracked the back of his head, and wiped the blood off his lower lips, smirking while he did it. "That's one time I've died."

To Ode's glee, her leader was alive. Greed heard her release a breath of relief, and mentally slapped himself. How could he forget? He never showed her that he couldn't die that easily. There was never a need to show her his other skills, really. But it seemed like he would have to do some explaining later to her.

Oh well.

"No way…" the boy spoke in a daze.

"You get it yet? Nothing is impossible, alright? I'm a little surprised you would have such a hard time accepting that, considering you're just a soul in a suit of armour."

"Who told you that?"

Greed flashed a grin, exchanging a side glance at the lucky girl. "People like to talk in the shadow world, and I've got plenty of friends. Now let's skip this casual chit chat. I'm more interested in hearing what it's like to have a body that will never die. An individual's soul transmuted and bound to an object? It sounds like that's the perfect recipe for immortality, to me."

"Let me explain. See, I'm Greed! I want everything you can think of!" He raised both hands up to his face, letting each greedy desire roll of his tongue. "Money and women, power and sex, status, glory; I demand the finer things. And of course, I crave eternal life!"

"Aren't you already immortal?" the kid asked

"Well, I guess I was put together a little sturdier than most. I am nearly two-hundred-years-old, but I wouldn't exactly say that I'm immortal. So, I spilled my guts all over, told you my darkest secret, now it's your turn. How'd you get your body?"

To help Greed out further, Martel decided to chime from inside the boy's armour, "Just make this easy and tell him. Unless you rather be examined; which means, we'll have to take you apart."

"I wish I could tell you. That would mean I actually remember how I got it. But even if I could, I'm not the one who did the transmutation." The armour stated, his voice sounding gloomy.

"That's not a problem. In that case, I'll just ask the person who did." Greed said, unfazed by the slight problem.

Immortality was right in his greedy hands, and no matter what, he wasn't going to let it go.

Greed sent out Bido to go and find the brother of the captured boy, while the rest of the gang waited inside. While they waited, they all headed up the stairs to the bar for a drink, except for two.

"So, you don't remember anything about your past, either?" Ode asked from the top of the crates, grabbing at the edge of her dress and playing with the ripped up pieces.

The boy tilted his head up at the teen girl, watching her for a little as she twisted the black cloth in her hands, "No, everything is such a blank. I don't remember how I got in this body or even some of my memories from when I was little."

"I see…" the brown-eyed girl muttered softly, not bothering to take her eyes off her lap.

"You don't remember your past?" he asked innocently.

"No, nothing at all," Ode mumbled, shaking her head back and forth, "The only thing I know is that I lived in the labs for a few years…maybe my whole life."

"That wouldn't be hard to believe," Lady replied, causing Ode to cast her eyes down to the suit of armour.

"What do you mean?" The boy wondered.

"She doesn't act like a normal person," she said casually, "If you spend enough time with her, you'll understand."

"I did remember from the last time I saw her, she was…different."

Ode knew she was different. It was because she didn't know a lot of thing, that's why she was so odd. She had little social skills, and the social skills she did learn were from Lady and the others. And it wasn't just social skills. She didn't know what certain things were! She wanted know as much as the rest of the people she lived with, so she wasn't always being told 'what's this', or 'what's that', but it was time and practice that could do that. That's all there was to it.

But if there was one thing she knew, it was that at the instant, she wasn't the only one who didn't know about her past. And for that…she was happy.

"What's your name?" Ode responded, a warm smile resting on her lips. She remembered hearing it before, but never remembered his name.

"My name is Alphonse Elric." He said, pointing to his torso, "What's your name?"

"I'm Ode….umm, Ode!" She announced, not sure on what to say about a last name. She leaned foreword and held her arm out as far as she could extend it, looking a little ridiculous trying to keep her balance on the crate. Alphonse did the same, and grasped her lanky hand, giving it a gentle shake, "Oh, and the chimera in there's name is Lady."

"That's not my name runt," the snake chimera sighed, "My name is Martel."

"Oh, uhh…It's nice to meet you both," Al said.

"What is it like to be in a suit or armour?" Ode beamed out randomly, resting her chin on one of her hands.

It didn't make sense on why Greed was so interested in a suit of armour. There appeared to be more flaws by having a soul concealed in armour than not. What was to be gained, besides becoming immortal?

"Well, I can't get hungry or tired, and I can't feel pain...but," Al paused, his gloved hangs tightening up into fists at his sides. "But, I'm sick of staying up all night watching my brother and other people sleep when I can't. I just wish I could do that...and I wish I could try some apple pie. And sometimes I wish that I could touch something and be able to know what the texture feels like."

Ode frowned, "You can't feel this?" Ode lightly tapped the boys head, and waited for him to say something.

"No."

The brown-eyed girl shuffled to the edge of the dark milk crate, and easily jumped down to face Alphonse. She kneeled down to his level, and stared at him. She needed to do something! She couldn't stand there and do nothing, but what could she do?

"Maybe..."She said to herself. Ode placed her right hand on the top of the boy's head and began to pat him. "It will be okay."

Alphonse was speechless. Although she was robotically patting him on his helmet, he could sense the endearment behind each pat. He did not expect someone to treat him so kindly here of all places, but right before his eyes a girl was comforting him...

"When I'm sad, Lady and Dolcetto will do this to me to make me feel better. So be happy okay?" she smiled.

Al nodded his head, "Okay...Thank you, Ode."

Deep inside the boy, Martel was grinning at Ode's stupid gesture. Ode got on her nerves at times, but there were times she couldn't help but like her.

An hour passed, and though the rest of the Devil's Nest's gang were growing tired of waiting, Bido finally arrived...perhaps he could have arrived more graceful. Bido was covered with multiple bruises, as he collapsed into the cellar door, and landed in the other room. Standing a few inches behind the beaten lizard, was the older brother of Alphonse, Edward.

"Brother!"Al called out, confirming the other chimera's suspicions about the mysterious blonde.

"It never really crossed my mind that you could get kidnapped," Ed said, walking past the oversized lizard and towards the group of kidnappers.

"Brother, this guys a homunculus!"

Ed stopped in his tracks, and gazed at his brother with wide eyes, "Are you serious?"

"Hey, way to ruin it," Greed whined. That was the second time the kid annoyed him. It was becoming a bad habit,but at least he only had to deal with him for a short time.

"We might be able to get some leads from him on how to get our original bodies!" the boy continued, ignoring his main kidnappers complaint.

Ed's eyes narrowed at his brother's words, and glared at the homunculus standing a few feet away.

"You have an ouroboros tattoo."

"Aren't you observant," Greed mused, moving his left hand around so he could fully see the infamous tattoo, "I was hoping that I only have to deal with the armoured giant."

"Why don't you just ask your partners whatever you want to know?"

"Partners?"

"Yeah, the rest of the ouroboros gang from the fifth lab. They had a couple of armour bonded souls with them, as well."

"You don't say?" Greed said, raising his eyebrows in surprise, "Well, it's kinda a long story, but we don't talk much anymore."

"There are others like him?" Ode whispered, as she watched the scene from the sidelines with Al.

Since when were there 'others'? She always thought her leader was an original...that there was no one like him. Why didn't he tell her?

"I've got a little proposal for you. You guys are pretty desperate to get your bodies back, right? Because I can teach you how to fabricate your own homunculus in no time at all. In return, all I ask is that you teach me how to transmute a soul." Greed turned around to face the boy sitting on the floor and grinned, "But I really don't understand why you would want your other body back. Seems like you got one that's perfect, already."

Was he really that blind? Al's body was far from perfect, even Ode could see that, so why couldn't he? After talking to Alphonse about his condition, she couldn't find a good reason to why someone would desire something so flawed...Couldn't he look for another way to become immortal? Ode liked him the way he was, so why couldn't he?

"No I don't, this body is not perfect." Al defended.

"You're joking right? You don't need to eat, you don't need to sleep, you don't even need to use the toilet! Sounds great to me!"

"Shut your damn mouth!"Everyone turned to the screaming blonde fuming in the back of the room. His distinguished features became twisted with malice, for Greed's ignorant words festered deep inside the teen, rapidly bringing out his rage. "Sounds great to you? It seems perfect? You don't know anything about the hell he's had to go through being stuck with that body! And you want to know how to transmute a soul?"

During Ed's infuriating rant, Ode slowly crept behind the younger brother's metal body, and stayed there, while the blonde's wrath was thrown at the unfortunate chimeras who didn't have some type of shield. Some of the chimera could have sworn a rush of wind was blowing at them from the force Edward's pipes were releasing. Others only stood there hoping that the kids bellowing voice would quiet down soon. But judging how angry he was, that wouldn't be happening for awhile.

"YOU KIDNAPPED MY BROTHER AND YOU WANT TO TRADE SECRETS WITH ME? I'M GONNA CRUSH YOU CREEPS! I'LL SMASH YOU, END YOU!" Ed's golden irises were now flaring up with red hot flames, making him completely hostile, " In other words, there won't be an exchange with you...SCUUUUM!"

By the end of his rant, the alchemist's arm was pointing directly at the kidnappers, his body in a dramatic pose.

"There's no need for him to get so upset about this," Ode told Alphonse, once she was sure that Ed was done yelling.

"Who said that?" Edward shrieked, harshly shifting his eyes around to find the source of the voice, his fists squeezed tight.

"I did." Ode admitted, though not daring to move from her hiding spot. When Ed heard her voice again, he immediately knew she was hiding behind his chained up brother. Her semi-long black and blonde hair was hanging out where he could see it, causing a memory to replay in his mind.

_"If you could, would you ever ask a bird how his day was?" _

"YOU!" Ed shouted, flinging his arm up and down at her hair, "You're the brat who ran away last time! You work for _these_ people? That explains where they got their information! You told them about Al, didn't you?"

Ode stood up, and slid her body away from her shield. She began to part her lips to answer him, but was thankfully cut off by Dolcetto.

"Ah, give the girl a break, she didn't mean any harm," the dog said, trying to calm the blonde down.

"Like hell I will, she's just as guilty as the rest of you!"

Dolcetto shook his head in frustration and prepared to unsheathe his sword.

"I guess we're doing this by force again." the dog chimera pulled out his weapon, and advanced towards his target.

"Don't kill him," Greed ordered nonchalantly.

"Yeah, yeah."

Dolcetto ran at the teen, swinging his sword in a stealthy method. To his shock Ed easily dodged the attack by jumping high up in the air and kicking him hard in the process. When Dolcetto had his guard down, he quickly threw his fist straight at the dogs nose, and beat him down to the ground.

"Next!" the alchemist cried, while clapping his hands together to create a sword like weapon to form on his metal arm.

"Roa, get the armoured kid outta here. Guess we'll dismantle him." Greed commanded, as he walked to the center of the room, blocking Ed from getting across.

Roa obeyed loyally and grabbed onto the armoured boy, lifting him up with ease.

"Oh, and take Ode along with you."

The young girl eye's met Greed's ; seeing his violet eyes were gentle she felt a little better about the situation on leaving.

"No offense doll, but you would just get in the way." he confessed softly to her, "Go with Roa, and I'll come back and get you soon."

Just then the sound of pounding feet brought Greed's gaze back to the charging blonde, and used his ultimate shield to block his attack.

Roa, taking his chance to leave, gripped onto Ode's wrist with his free arm, and forced her to follow him out to the sewers. She was taken far down the tunnels, where she was told to wait with the armoured boy and Lady, until the boss showed up.

And so, Ode waited...


	9. We All Fall Down

Chapter 9 "We All Fall Down"

Disclaimer: I do not own anything involving Full Metal Alchemist

**To those who reviewed, you guys are the best! :) **

**Enjoy the read!**

"Behave yourself!"

"No, I won't!"

Cinnamon eyes watched apathetically as Alphonse attempted to inch his way out of the sewers, while Lady used much of her strength to keep him from straying.

"You're not going to get far," Ode said, seemingly unfazed by his snake-like crawling to freedom.

The armoured boy tilted his head to the side, his metal arms never slacking against Lady's forceful grip. "I have to try. I can't stay here; my brother is so close. I have to reach him!"

"Okay," she muttered, allowing her body to tip backwards and lean on the sewer walls, "Hey, Lady what's taking the others so long?"

Martel could barely form a sentence, all her focus was on fighting the metal suit from the inside, "I don't...have a...clue."

"I hope it's soon," Ode droned to herself, she didn't like it down here one bit.

The small lights reflecting in the murky dark waters brought a thick eerie tone to the sewers. It was disgustingly haunting, as several parts of the filthy edges by the water were coated in sludge. The cement floors didn't feel sanitary to sit on, and if it weren't for Lady being inside the boy's protective body, most likely she wouldn't be slinking on the ground.

Ode started to tap her feet against the cement to make an echo ring down the tunnels, out of her own boredom, and continued to do so for awhile. The little tap dance she was doing was far more interesting than watching the other two fight on the ground. Who knows how long they would be struggling for? She soon started throwing a little more details to each step, using many parts of her feet, and a few twirls of her body to amuse her further. The young teen was having fun until...

"There going to die, you know?"

Ode stopped. She felt slightly annoyed that her distraction was interrupted by another distraction, but a sudden cold numbing chill stung her face, 'What? Where did that voice come from?'

The teen girl frowned in puzzlement, as she quickly eyed her surroundings. To her right was only a black empty pathway with no one around, and to her left were Alphonse and Lady. It could have been one of those two but the voice sounded too childish, almost inhuman.

"I'm down here," the enchanting singy-song soprano voice rang again. Ode peered her brown eyes down to the ground, knitting her brow at the sight. Standing before her was a black bird with sharp bright red eyes, it's pupils unusually large for it's species.

"I've seen you before," Ode whispered to the small creature, "What are you doing here?"

Any normal person would react differently if they saw a frightful black creature talking to them with a grim message like that. But for Ode, she treated it like it was another plain conversation.

"If you leave now, you can spare your wasteful life," it said calmly, ignoring her previous words.

"Spare my...life?"

"Yes, that's right. Start moving Jane Doe, start moving," It chirped, raising it's wings up, and flapping them in an attempt to mock her.

Ode turned to her left, wondering if the armoured boy noticed the talking bird, too. He was roughly about eight feet away from the two colour haired teen, and still trying to leave the sewers.

He didn't notice.

"Go Jane Doe. Or do you want to be surprised like everybody else?"

What should she do? Should she listen to the bird, or listen to Lady and stay in the sewers until either Greed, or another member of the gang comes to retrieve them?

"Fine. Your loss stupid girl!" The creature sang maliciously. It fluttered up in the air and soared over Ode's head, passing the others and disappearing into the dark abyss.

The black bird entered in a dream of hers once before. Although she saw the black bird once a long time ago, it was still unforgettable. Ode remembered the bird was on a spindly tree in a white room, clearly. She also remembered it was quite rude to her, like it disliked her. But if it disliked her, why did it give her advice to leave? And what did it know that she didn't? It acted like it could read the future. Another question, was how did it surface outside of her own dream?

Ode frowned. Had she known the bird would appear to her outside of her dream, she would have taken it seriously. Many more questions roamed inside her head, she needed to talk to the bird again. There conversation wasn't over. Ode pushed off the wall, and began speed walking to go search for the strange bird.

"Hey, where are you going?" Ode spun around to see the metal boy was looking straight up at her with shocked eyes, having stopped his little quarrel with the snake chimera.

"I'm going to go follow the black bird," she responded bluntly.

"Black bird? What black bird?" Lady's voice called out from the armour.

"The black bird that flew away just now. I'm going to go find it."

"Runt, no! We were told to stay here!" the snake chimera protested.

"I'll be right back, Lady," Ode replied casually, "I won't be-"

"Ode, listen to me. Greed sent us out here for a reason, don't go wandering," Martel scowled with concern in her voice.

The young teen stared in awe at the armoured boy, glancing inside to see bits of blonde visible from inside the helmet. She couldn't believe it. Did she hear correctly?

"You just called me...by my real name,"Ode gawked, her eyes slightly wider. Through out Ode's time with Lady and the others in the Devil's Nest, not once did Lady ever call her 'Ode'. Lady called her 'Runt', while Ode called her 'Lady'. That was their nicknames for each other. That's just how it was, but now it was different. The young teen smiled warmly at the blonde for a little longer. In a way that was Lady's way of telling Ode she cared for her.

"I'm not wandering Lady, I'll be back soon!" she said sweetly, before starting up her running, and left the two behind. She swore she heard Lady's voice call out for her, but she was too far to understand what she was saying.

-x-x-x-

She ran for awhile, making her way to the entrance of the Devil's Nest. Ode assumed the black bird went inside the cellar, as the walkway in the sewers ended just up ahead of the doorway. When she loomed over the doorway, she noticed the room was a huge mess.

The smooth ground was warped into a few sharp spikes, with a couple craters here or there. Rubble spread across the floor, and a few milk crates were destroyed by a great force. The last thing she spotted, while cautiously stepping into the room was up above her. There was a mini-like-door hanging from the vents swaying slowly, like a person had crept up in it.

'How weird,' Ode thought, placing her hands on her hips. The room was deserted, and there was no sign of the bird in the room either. With a sigh, she walked over the crumbled bits of ground, and successfully reached the other side. She stepped into the hallway and then...

**BANG!**

Ode was frozen like a cold statue. Even if her body wasn't numb with pure terror, she wouldn't have moved a single inch away from that very spot.

Barely an centimeter away from her cheek, a stream of smoke rose up from a single hot bullet, imbedded into the doorway trim. The one responsible was straight across from Ode's numb form; a military soldier.

'H-he tried to kill me,' Ode thought in disbelief, unable to look away from the terrifying man in the blue uniform.

The military soldier didn't allow much time to linger on, as he cocked his gun and aim it at her again. He closed one eye, and without hesitation he pulled the trigger.

"You stupid girl, dodge!"

At that instant, the childish voice broke Ode out of her scared halt, and her body lunged for the ground as quick as humanly possible. Her body began to shiver uncontrollably, while she laid huddled on the floor. She knew the bird was somewhere close, but at this point she didn't care. Only survival was on her mind. When she heard a second 'bang' come from the soldier, she didn't need to be told twice by the lurking bird to get the hell out of there.

Ode clumsily pushed off the floor and sprinted down the nearest pathway, hoping with all her might that she wouldn't be hit by one of those weapons. Suddenly the whole floor was filled with the sound of bullets going off, followed by a large amount of blood curdling screams.

What was going on?

"Take a right up ahead," the black bird sang near Ode. She snapped her head to the side to see that the bird was flying right by her side. And since she hadn't the slightest idea on where to go, she obeyed the birds orders. The fresh hall was clear of any people, until another gun shot rang out and a bloody body toppled a few feet away, from the teen and the bird.

Ode almost released a scream, before slapping both her hands over her mouth to silence herself. The body belonged to a fellow member of the gang, causing her to feel another rush of fear. She didn't have time to study which one it was, for a few dozen more guns shot off from random directions, forcing Ode to keep moving. The bird led her down every hallway, always getting lucky on guiding her away from the gun fire. Though the other chimera's Ode knew well, weren't doing so well.

Body, after body dropped wherever she fled. It was making her stomach fill with a displeasing sickness, every time she watched the blood spill in the air. At one point she wouldn't dare look down to see the mangled forms anymore, knowing she would throw up if she saw another corpse.

"B-black bird, w-why did you bring me here if-if you didn't want me to d-die?"Ode asked, her voice shaking in fear.

"You would have surely died in the sewers if you stayed there. At least out here, you have a chance," it spoke, now taking the lead in Ode's hunt for survival.

"H-how d-do you know?"

"Because _he _wouldn't have spared you," the creature concluded as it turned in another direction.

'He? Who is he?'Ode copied the bird, and did a sharp turn, but was greeted by a military soldier.

**BANG!**

"AAAAAAAAHH" Ode shrieked to the top of her lungs; a few tears prickling painfully in her eyes. She grabbed tightly onto the side of her head, feeling a hot liquid ooze out from her clenched hand. A loud ringing muffled all sound around her right ear, intensifying the new pain. She forced her legs to move backwards, and dropped to her knees once she was hiding behind the corner wall.

"It hurts...IT HURTS!" she shrieked again. She started to see blurry white stars cloud up her sight, as her body felt woozy.

"Don't pass out! You have to keep moving," the black bird squawked. Panic set inside Ode. The red-eyed creature was right, she couldn't pass out! If she did, she would die!

Ode's left ear, picked up the sound of heavy feet walking towards her. The soldier was going to finish her off, she knew it.

"When you get the chance steal his gun, Jane Doe."

It took a moment to register exactly what the creature told her to do, but when she did, she just knew she had to do what the bird told her. As if on perfect timing, the soldier had reached the end of the hallway, and was standing a few inches away from Ode, his gun lowered to her face. She didn't let that advantage go to waste, and swiftly wrenched the gun out of his hold.

"Shoot him, shoot him, shoot him!" the bird sang delightfully, almost too delightfully.

"How, I don't know how to shoot a gun!"she freaked.

"Yes you do, now shoot him!" it spat rudely.

Why did it seem like the bird knew a bit more about her than she did?

Ode lifted the gun up, and immediately squeezed the trigger, like she had used a gun before...

She missed. The blood was trickling down the side of her face much faster than earlier, making it difficult to focus now.

In a panic motion, she cocked the gun and aimed it at the soldier, who was attempting to attack her with his own hands. She shot.

Missed. She could see the stars were fading in and out of her eye range.

"No!" she cried out, taking a few steps back to have time to cock the gun again, and release the gun shell. The soldier raised his arm to grab her, she shot again.

Missed. If she had used a gun before, like the bird said then why was she missing? The soldier sprang at her and knocked her painfully to the ground, bringing another intolerable ring in her ear. Nearly blinded from the stars, the teen started to kick and punch the man. Her bloody hand found the trigger again, and cocked the gun once more.

Missed.

"Focus...focus," she whispered softly. She took a cooling breath and once again, pulled the trigger.

**BAM!**

She hit him. The man collapsed to the ground, never to rise up from his sleep.

The pain in the side of her head brought a throbbing headache to add to her bleeding injury. Ode was too scared to actually touch the wound, fearing it was much worse than she thought. But what choice did she have? She had to know what the damage was. She held her breath, and gently placed her blood coated hand over her right ear. It was wet and sticky from the bottom to the top, due to all the blood. The bottom half of her ear was fine. Then she felt the edge of the top part, and the stinging pain coursed harshly down her woozy body. To her horror, a rather large chunk of it was gone. Part of her ear had been shot off.

"Here," the bird said. The black bird tore a large piece of white clothe from the inside of the soldiers uniform, and gave it to Ode. With a 'thank you' she placed it around her head and tied it tightly against the wound. It would have to do for now. "Come, we have to return to the sewers."

"Why?" Ode inquired.

"Just come on."

-x-x-x-

It seemed like it was taking Ode forever to return to the filthy sewers again. She tried extra hard to keep from fainting, while she walked and ran back to Lady and Alphonse.

One of the odd things Ode happen to notice, as she traveled back was how she saw mostly the other chimera's all except Dolcetto, Roa, and Bido. She thought she might have caught up with at least one of them, and had some assistance, but that never happened.

'Where are they?'

Speaking of disappearance, right before Ode even entered the sewers again, her bird companion had some how dissolved into the thin air. It was yet another weird thing that bird committed.

After forcing her body to keep going down the tunnels, she finally stumbled upon Alphonse and Lady, only this time the boy was sitting upward, instead of slinking.

"Lady, you're still here?" Ode spoke, as she struggled to make it to them. When she did, she used Alphonse as a crutch for her to lean on. "No one showed up?"

She waited for one of them to answer, but both remained silent.

"Lady?" she slowly slid her hand down the armoured boys torso, stopping at his stomach. Her blood covered hand formed a fist and knocked against the metal. Nothing. "Alphonse?"

Something wasn't right. Ode fell to her knees, knocking repetitively on the boys stomach. She only stopped, as she caught a small puddle of blood right in front of her knees. Her eyes widened... "I thought I wasn't bleeding so much anymore..."

Ode clasped at her ear, inching her fingers around to detect if any blood had been spilling from her bandage. The bandage was dyed a deep crimson red, but the blood wasn't dripping out...at least not yet.

"Lady, can you come out of there?" she whispered softly, tapping at the armour, "Lady, I don't want to play any games right now."

Her thin fingers grazed all around his stomach, until she found a latch connected to the side of the metal armour. She smiled.

"Lady, it's time to come out," she sweetly said, unclasping the latch and swinging it open. Ode watched Martel's body slump out of the armour, landing in the young girl's lap with a sickening sloppy plop. A wave of blood splashed against Ode's face, coating more than half of her features in red blood. She could feel her black dress soaking up a hot liquid...

Her smile remained on her face, as if it were frozen that way. Her eyes never left the center of Alphonse's body. She didn't know if she had to strength to glance down.

"Lady?" Ode's cinnamon eyes very slowly gazed down at the body, widening in horror at what she was seeing. In her lap was a mangled corpse slashed down the middle. The top of the bodies head had a large black red hole in the center, along with the bottom of the throat. The jaw was slackened on her knee, deforming the face that Ode recognized. She brushed her fingers through the corpses blond hair, now mixed with a deep red.

"Lady...can you wake up, please?" Ode pleaded, a sob slipping out from her mouth.

"Please, Lady? Stop sleeping, please, please Lady?"she started to shake the body, a softly as she could,while hysterical sobs ripped out from the teen, "Please Lady, do something! Open your eyes, call me a runt, scowled me for running off, just get up!"

An unfamiliar liquid fell from Ode's brown eyes. She lifted one of her hands up from the body of Lady, and brushed the liquid off, examining it. It looked like regular water...Sure she knew that her eyes sometimes stung with water, but she never believed it would ever fall out. Why was it happening now? She didn't get it. More drops of water showered down her face, once she saw Lady again in her arms.

"Lady...La...dy...Martel, please get up!" she yelled, calling the snake chimera by her first name for the first time. "I don't want you to die...Martel, please...don't do this...Martel, Martel."

"Ode." A hand rested on her shoulder, attracting her attention and snapped her head back to see who it was.

"Greed." she whispered tearfully. A wave of relief washed over her, but only for a second. Her boss was covered with sever wounds, the most notable was the one in the neck. A few spazzing red sparks would form, restoring the lost skin, though it still hurt Ode to know he was attacked.

Greed bent down, and helped Ode carefully push Martel's corpse off the young girl, before grasping her wrist. Without another word spoken, he raced away with the girl deeper down the sewers.

-x-x-x-

"What the hell happened here, doll?"

Greed gently traced his fingers around the outer rim of the bandage, frowning once he saw how much blood was soaked into the clothe. Ode looked like a wreck. The side of her face was bandaged up, while the rest of her face was mixed with dirt and blood. Not liking seeing her look like that, Greed began wiping the blood off her face, with one brush of his hand at a time

"A military man shot me," Ode sniffed, while she used her sleeve to wipe away the tears, and some of the remaining blood, Greed missed."I think everyone is dead, Greed."

Greed didn't respond at first. He glanced in both directions as if he was expecting someone to find the two at any moment. What was he looking for?

"Ode, I need you to get out of here as soon as possible, alright?" He said, not even looking at the young girl standing before him.

"By myself?" She asked in puzzlement.

"Don't act so surprised, you just said so yourself that everyone is dead," He spoke in a joking, yet bitter tone, his violet eyes finally resting on Ode's brown ones, "And I don't intend to let another one of my possessions be stolen from me."

"No, no, no, no,no," Ode muttered to herself quietly, as she shook her head in disagreement to Greed's expectations. Fresh new tears began to spill down her face once more, her lips repeating the word 'no' over and over.

"Woah, sweetheart calm down." He could help but release a light chuckle, while he collected Ode's face in his hands. She truly was adorable, "Since when did you start showing a depressed side? Where did the zombie Ode I know run off to?"

Ode released a small smile through all her tears. He was indeed right. This was the first time Ode was showing a sad side to her, and it startled both her and Greed; but in a good way. Greed and the others meant so much to her. They were like the family she never had..or could remember. To see all of them be slaughtered in one day. How could anyone find that okay?

"I don't want you to die, too Greed," the brown-eyed girl sobbed, taking each hand of hers and placing it with endearment over Greed's own.

"Have some faith in me, will you? I can't die that easily," he smirked pridefully.

Ode let another sob slip out, "You dumb leader."

"Now, you're learning how to insult people? Damn it all, why did you choose now to start coming out of your shell?" Greed gave an annoyed groan, before shaking his head in defeat, "I was so close...If you kept up this little emotional pace of yours, I could have had you."

"I still don't know what the means..."Ode sobbed bluntly at the boss, leaning her body forward so her body touched his. Greed chuckled as he placed one hand on the girls back and the other stroked her mixed coloured hair.

"I'm sure you will someday," he mused.

Ode wished that the moment could last forever. She felt comfortable and safe with Greed, she never wanted to leave him. She couldn't explain it, but every time she was with him, it always felt right.

"Now, do me a favor sweetheart," Greed began, while guiding the young girl towards the edge of the sewer water, "I know it's not the best thing in the world to do but, I need you to go into the water."

"Why?"

"Just in case some military men come walking around here. If you stay still in the water, they will pass you off as a dead body. This is only temporary. When you don't hear a single thing for awhile, it will be okay to get up and escape."

"No, Greed, where are you going?"

"Can't get into it sweetheart."

"Why not? Is there some..." To her great surprise, Ode was cut off by Greed's lips pressing tenderly against hers.

Once Greed pulled away from the stunned Ode, he used his legs to knock the girl off the edge, sending her into the water. A loud splashed echoed off the walls, and luckily for her and her wound, the water was only waist deep. Greed flashed her a grin one last time, before he ran off down the sewers to continue his fight with the other homunculus.

Ode was alone now, and although that kiss was a decoy to fool Ode into falling in. There was a gentle passion behind that kiss...

As the time flew by Ode began to think of the other incidents that occurred that day, and each thought brought a few more tears to shed.

And so she wept for her comrades, Martel...and would soon be shedding tears for Greed.

-x-x-x-

I had so much fun writing this chapter! And I hope you guys do like it. I know not a whole lot of canon characters appeared in this chapter, but here's the thing. If Ode had been with Dolcetto, Roa, and Martel, she would have died. They were all killed by Bradley, and there is no way that he would spare Ode's life.

Also I know that the whole black bird thing is a little confusing, but that's pretty much the point. You aren't suppose to know about it till later, so really you just know as much as Ode does. But the bird is important keep that in mind! I tend to have a lot of symbolism in my stories so always keep an eye out for them. lol

Another note is for all the Ling fans out there, just so you know he will be in Chapter 10! And for the Greed fans...we all know what happens. But keep in mind that I'm following Brotherhood now, and if you know about Ling you will know there's a connection between the two characters :)


	10. Unexpected Visitor

Chapter 10 "Unexpected Visitor"

Disclaimer: I do not own anything involving Full Metal Alchemist (Do I have to tell you who Ode belongs to? It's pretty obvious)

**To those who reviewed, or just enjoy reading this story, you guys are FANTASTIC! I'm excited that it has finally reached double digits in chapters! :)**

**Enjoy the read!**

For a long time Ode kneeled in the putrid murky waters, as she waited for the echoes of the slaughter fest to no longer bounce around the walls. When she was sure those agonizing screams had vanished, she raised her freezing body from the water, and stepped on solid ground.

She was miserable. Her whole body shook violently from the near icy chilled water, soaking her to the bone. The filthy water wasn't even kind enough to rinse off most of the dripping blood, still pouring slowly from the side of her head, and down her dark crimson neck. She wasn't too sure which part of her was drenched in dirty water or blood, all she knew was she felt horribly disgusted by the ghastly combination.

Even more so, the searing pain in her torn up ear had not ceased once, while she waited in the dark tunnel. It took much restraint to not clutch on the bleeding mess of flesh, knowing well it wasn't wise to place her dirty hand on the wound. The last thing she wanted was to add to the intense sting. Ode still couldn't hear well out of her ear; only able to listen to the annoying ringing sound. If only it would stop, then perhaps her pounding headache would end…or maybe it was due to the loss of blood?

With much effort, Ode managed to take her first step on the cement, and slowly started to walk away. She could feel her energy seep out as her black shoes tapped against the floor, a woozy wave whipping around her head and down to her stomach.

"Where are you off to, Jane Doe?"

Ode halted clumsily to a stop, slightly tilting her head upward and slanted her eyes to the left. "My name is Ode."

"You're a fool if you think you can just walk out of the pub, looking so hideous," the black bird chirped, as it flew in place, "You would attract attention."

For awhile Ode let her blood covered lips stay closed, staring at the onyx creature. "I want to ask you something—"

Her brown eyes shifted upward to glance at the ceiling, looking away from the birds calm red ones, "—how was your day?"

The rapid flapping of black wings faded out, as the animal carefully landed right by Ode's feet. Another moment of silent trudged passed them, before the bird replied to the young teen.

"…Are you really that stupid? Who would ask such a ridiculous thing?" the bird squawked icily. If the bird could sneer, it would have when Ode didn't respond. "I suppose, it was terrible yet, exciting. I was able to watch a massacre…although it was spent with _you._"

Once again, the cinnamon-eyed girl started to travel painfully down the sewers, never turning around to glance at the bird.

"Did you hear what I just said earlier?" it squawked from behind.

"Yes, but I don't like you," Ode retorted, "And I don't want to stay here any longer, so I'm going. Goodbye black bird."

The black bird watched as she vanished into the darkness, its frightful red eyes narrowed darkly. In an instant the creature melted into the shadows, where it would stay and wait. Wait for the right time to return.

-x-x-x-

The welcoming light of the warm sun enthralled Ode, as she reached the top of the stairs. Her cold quivering form felt some small comfort from the beams. She guessed it was near dusk, when she carefully walked further away from the Devil's Nest…never to return again.

There were no signs of any military officers standing around the area, nor were there any signs that the military even arrived to the secluded pub. It was like everything was normal, like no one was killed that gruesome day.

It was disturbing.

Too many emotions Ode experienced in the outside world clashed harshly upon each other. She didn't know what to feel right then, while she quietly wandered through familiar back ways. Was she meant to cry for the loss of her fallen friends? Be frightened that she is alone, or that the military may come to finish her off? Or maybe be worried for her leader, Greed? Confused? Remain calm? What? What was she suppose to feel?

Ode snapped her eyes shut as her vision became hazy in her state of panic. She was lightheaded and quickly lost her balance, falling backwards against the hard brick wall. All the pain she was enduring brutally increased inside her head, causing Ode to groan loudly.

"Stop hurting, please!" Ode whined, gripping at her two-coloured hair, and smearing wet blood all over the blonde part. She tossed and turned out of her sitting pose, and fell to the ground, rolling in every direction to help cope with the severe sensory.

"…..de..."

Listening with her good ear, she could have sworn she heard a boyish toned voice call out from the alley. Ode clenched her teeth shut, fighting back a pathetic whimper wanting to break free. "...ld on…..ther…O…"

Scattered words managed to register in her mind, confirming someone was talking. Ode flipped her body to the side and angled her undamaged ear to the sky, hoping to understand the person.

"Ode, can you hear me? What's wrong?" She knew that voice! The brown-eyed girl slid her gaze upward, seeing a double vision figure hovering above her. Her blurred sight was coming back as the awful pain began to dull. Kneeling beside her was a rather tall guy with a pair of small red eyes, a scribbled sharp mouth, and was made of metal.

"Alphonse, you're not dead," Ode muttered weakly.

The metal armour shook his head, "No I'm not. But, look at you! You're covered in blood!" Alphonse flexed both of his bulky arms towards Ode, and gently wrapped them around her lying body, pulling her up to a sitting position.

It was then that Alphonse's older brother rounded the corner with a plain medium sized bucket clutched in his metal hand, and a few folded up white towels in the other. At first, Ed only noticed his brother kneeling in the middle of the back way, but soon suspected Al was not by himself.

"Al, that better not be another stray cat," Ed called in a low tone, before setting the bucket of water, and soft cloths down, "Al?"

Alphonse turned part way to the blonde, showing him an alarming sight of the hurt teen that sat behind him, instead of a random cat he normally would find in a deserted alley.

The alchemist's golden eyes widened in terror and instantly hurried over to his younger brother. As he approached the two, he caught a glimpse at the unusual hair colour of the petite figure. It didn't take him long to put two and two together.

"What the hell? Was this the military's doing?" Ed whispered urgently, his voice filled with disbelief, along with a great deal of anger.

He had mixed feelings about the strange teen who randomly entered his life at the wrong moments. The alchemist wasn't fond of her in the slightest, and since she played a part in the kidnapping of his brother, she couldn't be trusted. But, no matter how much the brat angered him, he knew that she didn't deserve this.

"Brother, Ode needs to be taken to a doctor, fast!" Al said.

"Right, let's go Al!"

-x-x-x-

Ode lightly traced her finger tips over the large square bandage on her ear. The doctor told her that the remaining part of her ear would heal without trouble; the only problem is that she may never hear out of that ear again.

'It's not the worst thing that has happened today.' Ode thought to herself, letting her hand drop from the bandage and land on the white coloured bed.

"Ode?" Alphonse called, while entering the small room, his brother following after him. The brown-eyed girl glanced over at the Elric brothers, merely giving them half a smile.

"How are you feeling?" the blonde asked halfheartedly.

"I feel…nothing," Ode stated plainly, "That is normal, right?"

The two brothers turned to each other, and back at Ode with sullen expressions. Her eyes returned to her sheets, understanding that it was not a good thing to be in this condition. The foul odor of sewage water and drying blood had been washed from her light olive skin, yet she felt no relief when the clean water dripped down her body. The doctor's miracle pill that removed that horrid pain, did not effected her emotions in the slightest either. Such a kind tablet would normally make her gawk in awe at its magic...but her clean face remained blank.

"It's just a form of coping with grief, Ode," Al spoke, as he moved towards the bed to place a comforting hand on her shoulder.

"What grief? I told you, I feel nothing,"she responded in a monotone voice, "There's no water; not even a sting in my eyes."

"Crying isn't the only way—"

"I saw their bodies lie in a puddle of blood, and all I wanted to do was run away. I didn't care that they died."

_Except for a few._

"It's human nature to want to survive," Edward muttered in a matter-of-fact tone. He was still bitter towards Ode, but there were some things, such as wanting to live, that could be justified.

"Is it human nature to kill someone? What about wanting others to survive? Shouldn't that be in our nature, too? Why do humans place themselves first?" Ode's hands grabbed at her hair, messing it up, while her emotions surfaced from their numb cage. Then, _his_ smug grin flashed over her eyes, "Why did he care for his possessions? He always came first, didn't he?"

Didn't he?

Ode must have confused the two brothers near the end of her rant, as a long pause lingered on in the patient's small room. The metal brother broke the silence with the first syllable of his sentence, but was cut off by a louder, much older sounding voice speaking from the doorway.

"My, my, what a popular little lady."

All three heads turned to the entrance to see a fairly tall man, wearing a blue military uniform. He had well kept black hair and a matching mustache on his wrinkling face. His most distinguished feature however, was his bright turquoise eye, accompanied by a black eye patch on the opposite side. Oh, how intimidating he looked just standing there.

"Führer King Bradley," the blonde murmured, staring suspiciously at the leader of Amestris.

"What are you doing here, sir?" the younger brother questioned politely.

Bradley peered darkly at the adolescent's huddled before him. Although it was subtle, there was a threatening gleam in his eye Ode happened to notice. It barely lasted long, as he closed his single eye, and gave a friendly smile.

"I was informed that one of my men had accidentally shot a poor girl, while attempting to seek out a gang of dangerous men," the Führer replied, casually stepping further in the white room, his arms crossed neatly behind his back, "And I'm here to personally apologize for such a mistake."

When he stopped near the bed his eye snapped open, resting intently on the two-colour haired girl. The older man was still smiling down at her, but his warm gesture failed to bring Ode any ease.

He seemed like a predator.

"That's kind of you, Führer" Alphonse said.

Bradley nodded his head in acknowledgment to the metal boy, before leaning somewhat forward, to capture Ode's full attention. "It's a pleasure to meet you, miss."

Ode kept a blank expression, as she cautiously raised her cinnamon eyes up to meet his gaze. She could tell he was surprised to find her emotions were displayed so openly in her eyes, betraying the poker face she had. In an unspoken conversation she expressed a deep curiosity for the military man, though a twinge of fear glazed the irises, like a thick fog.

'Why can't I speak to him?' she pondered,unable to break the contact.

Another pause tainted the air with an awkwardness, refusing to die away by itself. Losing a bit of his patience, King Bradley opened his mouth to speak again, "You're name is Ode, correct?"

"Yes." Ode muttered, sparing them both from another uncomfortable silence.

"That's such a unique name. You wouldn't know where the origins of that name come from, do you?"

"No, I made it up."

"Uhhhhh—What she means is, she made up the nickname!" Ed sprang forward, as he power walked across the room, waving his hands in a frantic window-washing movement, "Her real name is Ode...tte, you see!"

'Odette's my real name?' she blinked a few times. Behind the most important man in the country, stood Edward, signaling Ode with wide eyes to shut up.

"...I see, very well."Bradley responded as he tipped his head down, shrouding the upper part of his aging face in darkness.

Ode couldn't explain why the man suddenly brought her on edge. This man had done nothing wrong to her, so why did she sense a barrier of resentment separating him from her? She felt like a beast was attempting to hunt her down, loathing how she was out his reach, but so close. It was unsettling to believe a man who spoke warmly to her, caused her to feel unsafe.

"I sincerely apologize for causing you trouble, and the loss of your ear and hearing," The Führer said, resting one of his arms over his heart, then used his other arm to point at his eye patch, "I too, know what it's like to lose half of your senses." Bradley straightened his posture, and turned his back to the young girl, making his way out of the room. His gloved hand grasped the door frame, then pivoted his body sideways, "I hope you have a fast recovery, young lady. Take care."

As the military leader departed out the door, Ode was left wondering about the older man with the eye patch. If his men were responsible for her ear being shot off in the Devil's Nest, then that meant it was under his order that all the chimera's be killed. He was the reason for her loss, her pain, and her home. A fire grew to a wild blaze in her heart. She had no clue what this new emotion was, though it shook her to the core, throwing her on another emotional ride. Ode glared at the wooden floor as her right hand formed a tight fist.

'How could he?...'

-x-x-x-

Führer King Bradley leisurely strolled to the back of the train, as it traveled through the night to reach Central. When he was sure that no one was following him, he quietly slid the storage compartment door open, and slipped inside. Like Bradley predicted, out from the shadows of the dark storage area wobbled a short overweight creature with white orbs for eyes. His large grin stretched out his face, realizing who appeared by the door.

"Did Wrath kill the girl?" the plump monster questioned.

"Unfortunately, the girl was being watched by the Elric brothers." Wrath admitted, to the other homunculus, "Had I tried to kill her, those boys would surely have intervened to try and save her. And I can't risk fighting two of our sacrifices."

"Did you really think it would be that easy?" a raspy voice chuckled, "With all the luck she has, you won't be able to touch her."

Narrowing his eye, Wrath unsheathed his sword and walked over to the chained up homunculus, lying on his back. Glowering down at the fallen monster, the Führer was so tempted to stab his sword straight into his cocky smirk. "I easily slayed your precious pets with one swing of my sword. What makes you think a pathetic human, could escape me even with luck, when those chimera's could not?"

"You don't think I let _any_ human become _one_ of my favourite possessions, do you? I want the best, and for anyone to make the cut, they have to be the best of their kind." Greed enthused, despite being in such a weak state.

"I fail to see how any human could be the best. However, that brat may be lucky," in a swift motion, Wrath raised his sword, then thrust the weapon with great force deep into the ultimate shields chest, "But her luck will eventually run out. And once it does, I'll be there to watch her take her last breath."

Greed released a gurgled groan, while he choked on his own blood, spewing out from his mouth. His face was twisted in pain from the sword, along with Wrath's cruel words, "Damn...you." Because of Wrath's constant killing, it took much longer for the greedy homunculus to heal his wounds, as well as to hold consciousness. To his despair the world around him started to fade as he blacked out under, Wrath's vengeful eye.

"Gluttony, make sure to keep an eye on him." The human-like homunculus ordered, not bothering to remove the sword out from Greed, "Envy should come to assist you, once the train has arrived in Central."

"Okay! Will Wrath go and kill the girl, soon?" Gluttony childishly wondered.

"No, it would be a useless thing to do. I only said it to make him suffer. The only humans Father deems important are the candidates to become sacrifices, not a failed experiment that decided to tag along with Greed." And with that, Wrath left the storage area to return to his private compartment.

-x-x-x-

Sorry this is a little short compared to the others! :( Though to make up for it, the next one should be coming out next week. I had full intention of placing Ling in this chapter, but it didn't seem to want to fit in just yet, so he will be showing up in the next chapter. Hope you liked it, and stay cool you lovely people!


	11. New and Old Faces

Chapter 11 "New and Old Faces"

Disclaimer: I do not own anything involving Full Metal Alchemist

**Note: Well, this chapter was delayed a lot longer than expected. I had a terrible case of writer's blocker that just wouldn't go away, no matter how hard I tried to get rid of it. But the good news is the evil writer's block is gone, and now I can finally get back to work! And a big thank you to those who still supported this story! You know who you are :)**

**Enjoy the read!**

Leaning her mutilated ear up against the glass of the train compartment was probably not a good idea. Sure, it was bundled in fluffy cotton patches, and her mop of hair cushioned the wound, but it still prickled with pain every time she applied pressure to it. Even the Elric brothers sitting right across from the teen girl muttered their concerns. The only thing was Ode didn't care.

It had been a few days since she was bed ridden for her injuries, and after having her near deaf ear be treated by Dublith's best doctor, she was well enough to depart deep into the cruel world. Although she was doing much better with healing physically, she remained just as emotionally broken as the day of her ear 'accident'.

"How much longer 'til we reach Rush Valley?" Alphonse gently asked.

"Any minute now," the blonde replied, noticing the very town was in view from the window. Ed let his golden eyes sweep over to the gloomy girl, sluggishly sitting right in front him, he frowned, "You know, if you want…We can send you off to Resembool. It would be a nice place for you to stay, while you try to get back on your feet."

Ode shook her head, her tepid eyes never turning away from the glass, "No, I want to go to Central."

"But why there?" the alchemist wondered calmly.

"…Just get your arm fixed, and then take me to Central, please."

She couldn't explain it, but ever since she stepped outside the hospital in Dublith, she felt an impulse. She needed return to the place she came from. And when the two brothers asked if they could help her in anyway, she took that opportune moment to travel back to the city.

It was a mystery as to what she would do once she reached her supposed 'home.' She knew she wasn't independent enough to survive on her own, she doesn't even know how to cook herself a meal. In the Devil's Nest, Martel was the one who prepared her food, while she waited at the bar with her fellow comrades. Martel did a lot of things for Ode...and now, Martel was gone…they were all gone.

Perhaps, she would be better off taking Edward's offer, and stay with someone? But no, she needed to find out why Central City was calling for her.

_She had to._

The train came to a full stop in a matter of minutes, and the passengers began to rise from their seats, heading for the exit. The brothers casually brushed off the sight of the earth toned town when they departed the train, but for the latter, it was a bit of an eye opener.

Unlike Central or Dublith, Rush Valley was a mountain packed area, with very few buildings attempting to rival such heights. Replacing the normal smooth cement grounds, was a fine sheet of creamy toned soil, caked deep in the natural rocky land. The fold mountains surrounding the town had large clumps of dusty green trees, growing out of the side of the massive rocks, along with a few whitish homes here or there. All the buildings were painted a dull colour, yet stuck out from the mountains. It was different from other towns in Amestris; in a good way, of course.

Had a metallic grip not pulled her away from the train station, Ode might've remained in her little trance for much longer. It was Alphonse whom held her hand, and guided her down the far stretched street, with her walking a few inches behind.

The people were just as different as the environment they lived in. They were a town of pride and diligence. Everywhere she looked; men and woman were either making, or wearing a metal limb similar to Ed's. Some gawked at the silver body parts out on display, while others were working hard to build the complex machines on sturdy wooden tables. A few groups were even gathered around, only to show off their mechanic appendages. There towns bright mood was peculiar too. The very early morning didn't faze them; instead it brought a genuine smile on their faces.

Yes, Rush Valley was different, but maybe that's why Ode was so interested.

"Hey, Winry!" Edward howled, once he saw a familiar girl carrying a box of equipment by a yellow trimmed shop. The sudden shout caught the attention of said girl, as she turned towards the trio with wide eyes.

"Hey Al, Hey Ed!" she sweetly called with a glowing smile, as they rushed over to greet her, "What are you doing showing up like this?"

Edward was smiling like a fool, as he hesitated for a good minute to respond. He must not have thought of anything to say, as he wordlessly lifted up his mangled arm, and gently waved it.

He never had a chance.

The blonde girl plunged a hand deep into her box, and pulled out a shiny tool, twinkling in the bright sun. Using great force, the blonde chucked her tool directly at him so hard, it forced him to crash into the ground.

After much difficulty, Ed lifted his head off the soil —a few pathetic groans drawling out from under his breath. He could feel a new swollen bump beginning to form under his bangs as he furrowed his brows, and glared up at his attacker. A furious rant was ready to rip through Ed's gritted teeth, but was replaced by fear, once he saw yet another shiny object clenched in her tightly wound grip.

"How is it you two can't stay out of trouble, Ed?" she snapped, resting her palm against her brow in frustration, "I swear, you keep getting more reckless each time I see you."

It was Ode who first checked to see if Ed wasn't about to fall unconscious. She approached him with curious eyes, and gently started to poke his limp shoulder repeatedly with her foot.

"Umm, Ode," Alphonse said, watching his brother twitch aggressively each time her foot connected to his red coat, "I don't think that's helping brother, at all."

As she stopped her naïve gesture, she suddenly noticed the girl known as Winry, blankly staring at her with wide eyes. Without a doubt, she was one of the prettier girls Ode had ever seen. Standing a few inches taller than Ode, Winry was a slender young woman with a pair of well-toned arms. She didn't hide much of her figure behind large amounts of clothing, as she merely wore a black strip around her chest, along with beige pants. Long locks of light blonde were pulled back and partly shrouded by a dark green bandana, wrapped snugly around the top of her head. Her straight tresses delicately curtained each side of her soft jaw, lighting up her chaste and round eyes. They were nearly as piercing as bright sapphire, but not quite; still they were a lovely shade of blue.

"Oh Winry, I almost forgot," the younger brother politely apprised, catching Winry's attention, "This is our friend, Ode."

Winry took another look at the other girl, smiling as she gleefully spoke, "Pleased to meet you."

"You're so pretty..." Ode admired ever so bluntly. The blonde mechanic was clearly stunned by the random compliment, blinking confusedly at the brown-eyed girl whose face reminded her of a bewildered child. Her astonishment didn't last long, and released a short but sweet, giggle.

"Thank you, that's sweet of you," she smiled, making Ode nod her head in delight, with a smile on her own lips. "You guys must be tired. Why don't you come on in, and make yourselves comfortable?" Turning around the blonde motioned for them all to follow her inside, waving her arm towards the entrance. Before heading further into the automail shop, Winry stopped, and craned her neck, narrowing her eyes towards the alchemist still laying in the same spot, "Alphonse, could you drag your brother inside? I'm not about to work on him out here," She bitterly said, more demanding the metal armour to obey as opposed to asking.

"Uh, sure." Al nervously obliged.

Shooting Ed one last glare, the irritated blonde opened up the door and stepped inside the shop, followed by Ode, and then Alphonse carrying a still twitching Edward.

-x-x-x-

"Alright, I've done all I can for now. You'll have to make do with a patch job," Winry announced, setting aside her role of tape on a perched tray of tools. Ed's arm still wasn't fixed yet. There were several parts of his metal arm that _were_ replaced, especially around the fingers, _but _there were still missing chunks of automail pieces, that normally would protect the inner skeletal core. " I'll go get what we need, but until then, you've got some time to kill."

"Kill time huh? How are we suppose to do that with a town entirely made up of automail shops?" Ed asked dryly, flexing his shiny new fingers as he sat up in his operating, automail chair.

"I dunno, Ed, use your imagination," Winry said, while collecting her scattered gadgets, and putting them in her tool box.

"Right," he sighed, swinging both legs over the chair, and got up to stand next to his brother and Ode. "Well thanks Winry. Al, ready to go?"

"Yeah." the armour replied. He then stretched his broad hand near Ode's smaller one, hanging loosely by her side, "C'mon Ode. I doubt you'll have much fun, waiting around for Winry to get back."

"I suppose you're right," she agreed, grabbing onto Al's hand.

The trio preceded a few steps out of the back room, before a soprano voice called out from the background, stopping their feet. All heads turned to a mildly concerned Winry, who stood in between the two rooms. She seemed hesitate to say another word as she scanned her blue eyes over each curious teenager.

"Forget something, Winry?" Ed inquired as he lazily cocked an eyebrow.

"Um..It's just...I happened to notice..." she stuttered. She finally settled her eyes on the blond and black haired girl, "Uh...Ode. I don't mean to seem rude or anything, but is that your only article of clothing?"

Ode instinctively looked down at her dress and fanned out the black cloth like she was about to curtsey, then gazed back up at Winry, "Yes...it is."

Winry frowned. When her eyes fell on the black dress, (if anyone could dare call it a dress anymore.) she could only imagine how long someone would willingly stand to wear that filthy scrap of cloth. Far away it appeared to have a few parts of it mixed together to make a blackish-brown but up close...that was a different matter. Its once charcoal colour was tainted with a horrendously sickening rusty-brown, stained across her torso, and a few thick streams of it, smeared the right shoulder and down the sleeve. Ripped holes plagued the lower edges varying in size, and trailed all the way up to her knees, with an occasional hole forming at the cuffs of her wrists, or near her thighs. Even the buttons on her chest were faded to a dull grey, with the top one dangling by a thread. Winry had to change something about this. It shocked her to think why Ode didn't buy herself a new dress, but then, it was probably because she didn't have any money...

"I see... Alright then, you're coming with me," Winry said, moving over to Ode, and gently placing a secure hand just above her elbow, "You two go on ahead. I'll have her catch up with you guys when we're done."

"Done with what?" Ed asked. And he was suppose to be intelligent..Winry shook her head,and gave a deep sigh.

"Have you two bothered to look at what she's wearing? I swear, you boys are so clueless," she exclaimed, muttering that last line to herself. "I'm going to check to see if I have anything she can wear, before I go get the parts."

"That's fine. Head down the main road when you've finished." Ed lazily told Ode, not finding the whole thing a big deal.

"If you don't find us there, Just be on the lookout for a suit of armour!" Alphonse brightly added.

Ode simply nodded her head, giving them the go ahead to leave her in the care of Winry. As the blonde girl guided Ode to the back room, the boys tread on ahead to the front of the shop,and headed down said road, searching for something to do.

-x-x-x-

Edward couldn't believe it. After walking around the damn town for nearly a half hour, the only time consuming activity he found was getting himself an ice cold drink from that restaurant at the corner. Sure he could've sat down and ate a meal, but he didn't feel like spending his money on food in order to pass the time; plus he wasn't hungry.

"Ode should've finished up with Winry awhile ago, wonder what's taking so long?" Ed droned as he sauntered in the middle of street, passing dozens of automail junkies, working hard on their projects. He expected his younger brother to comment, but when he didn't, the alchemist turned around to find himself standing alone all of a sudden. "Al? Where'd you go?"

Ed spun his head left and right, a few times until he caught in his blurred vision, a bulky grey figure, close to the ground. He stopped his head motion in that same area, and sure enough, found Alphonse sitting at the rim of an alleyway, facing away from him.

"Al?" he questioned, causing the suit of armour to turn his helmet in the fullmetal's direction.

"Brother."

"What now? Did you find a stray cat or something?" he grimaced. That was usually why he ever found Al seated by a dark enclosed space. Judging by the tone of his voice, Ed was most likely right.

"Uhhh, well, no," Alphonse replied as soon as he noticed that Ed was right behind his large shoulder. Golden eyes widened in pure shock, realizing it wasn't a soft feline, with adorable squishy ears, hanging limply in the armours grip. No, it was far from that.

Instead of yellowish bronze _fur_, there was a long sleeved yellowish bronze _shirt_, with a design of white flames, licking the ends of it. Instead of innocent round eyes, there were squinty and long eyes, appearing almost like they were closed. Instead of pointy stabbing claws, there was a pointy stabbing sword! To top it off, no cat would have long black hair tied in a ponytail, nor would be walking around with ivory pants and sandals.

"So hungry...must eat food," the stranger desperately groaned.

The two brothers looked at each other, and immediately thought the same thing...well Ed thought more along the lines of '_So much for not spending money on food.'_ But still, generally it was the same thing. Quickly taking the dark haired guy with them, this new little trio hurried to the restaurant on the corner called 'Meshi' without delay.

Once they paced to the restaurant, Al picked an empty table and carefully lowered the guy onto the wooden box-like chair, and Ed went to order him some delicious food.

"Are you going to be okay?" Al asked, after watching the guy fall forward on to the table, remaining in that pose for quite sometime.

"Is there any food yet?" the starving guy managed to whisper.

"Almost, my brother is ordering it now," Al answered.

"Then no...I'm dying...slowly...slowly dying." he dramatically said, pressing his body further against the table.

Alphonse glanced over to the restaurant, seeing his older brother walk out with two bowls of steaming food in each of his hands.

_Well, at least we're killing some time..._

-x-x-x-

Alright! Chapter 11 has ended! Although I did make it a bit obvious, I'll still ask, just for kicks...can you guess who the mysterious man is? ;)


	12. A Recovering Heart, and Ling's Return

Chapter 12 "A Recovering Heart, and Ling's Return"

Disclaimer: I do not own anything involving Full Metal Alchemist.

**Note: Wow guys, twelve chapters and it's still going well! I believe a huge part of that is because of Ode, though! I've been getting a lot of positive responses about Ode as a character, and the way you guys keep saying how adorable she is, makes me a happy writer! As always a big thanks to all the reviewers, and even to the silent readers! I feel like I don't tell you enough how brilliant you guys are! **

**Enjoy the read!**

"Sorry they don't fit too well." Winry was kneeling in front of Ode, curving her lips into an apologetic smile.

She had lent a few of her older clothes to the shorter girl standing up with her head looking down. To her surprise, the garments didn't swallow Ode up like she'd assumed, but rather extended a little longer down her body than it should. Their bust and waist were generally the same size; it was just around the limbs where there was a problem.

"It's fine," Ode gently said. Lifting her arm up, she watched the mechanic reach for the fabric hanging past her fingertips', and start to roll it farther up. Once she stopped near the elbow, the blonde stuck a gold pin in the bundle to keep it from unraveling.

"There we go," Winry said, then taking Ode's other arm, and repeating the process, "I guess I never realized how much manual labor can do to my arms."

Ode frowned a little at the blonde. She didn't understand why she was explaining how her arms were thicker than her scrawny ones. It wasn't her fault they had different body structures'. In fact, it was genuinely kind of her to even give her clothes in the first place. So why feel sorry, or explain herself?

Once Winry finished, she rose to her feet, brushing off any dirt that clung to her knees, "That should do for now. I'm sure once we're in Central, I can buy you some more clothes that actually fit."

"Thank you, Winry...but don't people only need one set?" Ode asked, her eye brows furrowed. She knew Ed wore the same thing everyday, and so did some of the chimera's. There were only a select few who bothered to change into something else, but it wasn't that often. Was it not normal to only wear one set of clothes?

Now it was the mechanic's turn to frown, "I suppose...But, it's common for most people to have more than what's on their backs. It's good to have several clothes to change in to if you're living in a stable home. Ed told me you were planning to stay in Central, is that right?"

"Yes..." Ode began, but doubted that 'yes' as soon as it was said,looking away from the blonde "At least, I think so..."

It wasn't hard to see the brown-eyed girl's expression change from curiosity to expressly grim. She was still as indecisive as ever, on what to do when she arrived in the big town of Central. The puzzle pieces really weren't fitting together, and it wasn't intending on changing anytime soon. It wouldn't surprise her if the pieces didn't fit when she actually makes it there. The whole thing was a mess.

"Come on. Let's see what we can do with your hair."

Ode noticed a feminine hand enter her reign of sight, and whipped her head up to see Winry, giving her a bright smile with her blue eyes closed. With a nod, Ode took her hand, before being led to the auto shop's private bathroom. Inside there was a mirror, reflecting the two girl's images right back at them. While Winry went to find a brush, Ode took that time to get a better look at her new _clean _outfit.

She wore a pair of dark blue jean shorts, which fit a lot better than the other two articles of clothes on her upper body. The first layer was a milky white button down shirt, that fell just an inch or two above the edge of her mid thigh shorts. It fit snugly around the middle of her petite form, though stretched longer in every other direction, particularly around the sleeves. To add to the casual style, she had over it an opened black jacket with quarter sleeves, making it easier for the bundle of white and black to co-exist peacefully in the same spot. Despite having its flaws here or there, Ode enjoyed the new look. It too was simple like her the previous dress, but unlike the gown, she felt the clothes were more...stylish.

"Found the brush!" Winry cheered behind her, returning to the bathroom with said brush in her right hand. The mechanic ran her fingers through the sea of black locks, spilling past her shoulders, then gently tugged the teeth of the wooden brush against the upper blonde, smoothing out a few knots. She blended the opposite colours together with each pull, as she made sure all her tangles became a soft layer. After a few tugs around her head, Winry ran her instrument on Ode's side. She pushed the hair to meet the middle, gliding it across her ear and —

"Ouch!" Ode yelped, wincing away from the brush.

Winry stopped. What was hidden under layers of hair, made the blonde's heart sink to her stomach. Her well-toned arm started to reach for the medical patch taped over Ode's ear, as if touching it would make it better.

"I'm sorry, here let me—"

"Don't!"

Ode shut her eyes tight while she softly cupped her bandaged ear, and jerked a few steps back from Winry. The blonde left her arm frozen in the air, as she stared at Ode. Suddenly things clicked in the mechanic's head. It made sense now; why the Elric brothers brought a mysterious girl in rags with them, and why Ed showed up in Rush Valley with a broken arm. And the stains on Ode's dress...

"Something bad happened involving you and the boys...I'm right aren't I?" Winry whispered quite sternly. When Ode didn't respond, she knew she was correct.

It was bad enough that those two always went looking for trouble, but now another person was thrown into their choas. She was tempted to hunt down those boys, and demand to know exactly what happened...but she knew they wouldn't tell her the full story. _They never told her anything,_ and she wasn't about to force it out of Ode, that wouldn't be fair. Winry could already tell by her melancholy mood, that she was still sensitive about the whole thing.

"I don't know what happened," Winry said, taking a few steps closer to Ode, "But...just know. You don't have to face this alone."

Ode opened her eyes. Glancing over to the other girl, she could see Winry was sincere.

"Sometimes when we go through trauma in our lives, we try to isolate ourselves; I assume that's why you want to go to Central?..Anyway, it's because of these hard times, we need to be with the ones who care for us the most. They can be our crutch when we're mad, or even when we want a shoulder to cry on."

"...I know that to be wrong," Ode cynically said, letting go of her ear, "I don't need a crutch. I need them to be alive, I needed to protect them...like they did for me...So I wouldn't be here by myself" Tears prickled her eyes, her voice beginning to crack while she tried to speak clearly, "They wouldn't be gone, they'd be just fine if I didn't—if I didn't—"

A pair of arms enclosed around her in a tight embrace, startling a worked up Ode. Winry's blonde head rested against her own, smiling sadly, while giving Ode the comfort she deserved. She gladly accepted it, and returned the hug, pressing her face against the mechanic's warm skin. They stayed that way, neither saying another word, until Winry felt it was alright to speak again.

"It's alright be upset, Ode." the pretty blonde said, "But don't be upset with yourself."

"What?"

"Who knows what could have happened if you acted differently? You can think all day about what you should've done, instead of what you did do, though in the end it won't change anything," a teardrop slid down Ode's cheek, as she kept listening to her intently, "Realizing this doesn't lessen the pain, I know. It still makes you feel guilty for living, while you're loved one's died. It doesn't seem fair..."

Ode gripped her lanky arms tighter around the mechanic, as a couple more hot tears streaked down, each time the blonde's words pained the mourning teen. It was like Winry knew her despair, like she endured the cruelty of loss that carved deep into her bleeding heart. Did she lose a loved one too? Was she a survivor of a tragic event?

"Can I ask you something?" Winry started again, pulling back a little, to look down at Ode's grieving expression, "Why do you think they protected you?"

"Why?" Ode repeated like a mockingbird. Horrifying memories flooded her mind,as she tried to recall a time any of her dear comrades murmured their reasoning's. Martel was angered at her foolish decision to wander off with the black bird, and yelled out to Ode. But she said nothing as to why she wanted her safe. The only one who ever came close to explaining was Greed.

_"Ode, I need you to get out of here as soon as possible, alright?" _

_"By myself?" _

_"Don't act so surprised, you just said so yourself that everyone is dead...And I don't intend to let another one of my possessions be stolen from me."_

He wanted her alive so he could claim her once again. Was that the only reason? He did always want his possessions to be happy...Happy. Maybe that was it. Perhaps Greed wanted her to live so he could be happy with her, and stay with his collection of people for a long time. In his own messed up way, the homunculus wanted her around to see another day! Yet this conflicted so. He never told her why he didn't escape with her. Greed risked getting caught for something else right? It couldn't be for her, because that was against his avaricious nature. So what?

Well...It doesn't matter now.

"He wouldn't let my life be stolen. If I were to guess, he wanted me to be happy." Ode concluded, vaguely implying to Winry about losing a male companion. "I suppose you can't be happy when you're dead."

"That's right. He wanted you to be happy. I bet he wouldn't want to see you detaching yourself from everything."

"No," Ode whispered, wiping away any straggling tears, with the back of her hand, "No he wouldn't."

"It's okay to live on, Ode. It's what our loved one's would want. Because when we move on, we see the brighter side of things, and know that the dead aren't really gone. They are still with us in our hearts, and our memories Ode. And when we really miss them, we just remember all the good times with them, and step by step. We heal."

Even though the two girls just met, it didn't matter. Out of all the things Ode needed, it was to listen to voice who would help her. A voice that would make her okay, and begin her recovery, and for that, she was thankful to Winry.

-x-x-x-

After the girl's heart-to-heart conversation, a portion of burdening weight lifted from Ode. As she left Winry's automail shop, and down the busy street of Rush Valley, she had a little jump in her step; she was feeling less strained, and a little livelier than when she first arrived in the mountain side town. Ode even appeared much livelier too. With her new wardrobe and her hair pulled in to a loose messy bun, revealing her clean features, she started to shine.

She was searching for the Elric brothers, like she was told to, and like predicted she didn't have to look too long. Listening to Alphonse suggestion earlier, she instantly recognized a towering suit of armour standing around a wooden table next to his older brother. As she advanced forward, her brow furrowed at the sight in front of her.

The alchemist wore his feelings quite transparently; his golden irises shrunk to the size of beads on the whites of his eyes. Both arms were clenched tightly in to fists, with a scowl on his mug, and leered at another person sitting on down. The stranger's front side was turned away from Ode, only showing his back. What she could see was that the stranger wore foreign clothes coloured yellow-bronze, and a design of white flames dancing on his shirt. A long tress of black hair was tied in a ponytail, falling past his broad shoulders.

"Heh. I've seen that look before."Ode said to herself, thinking nothing more of the resemblance.

Moving closer to the brothers, she watched as Edward's anger morph to an alarming frown curving his mouth. The dark haired guy must have said something to strike a nerve inside the alchemist, causing him to reverse his stance, and head in the opposite direction of the new guy. Alphonse was copying his brother, when out of nowhere two stealthy figures sprung to action from the commanding sound of a finger snap.

A chill crawled down Ode's body, at what she witnessed. A hooded person in a black uniform, layered with hard armour, held a knife-like weapon close to the short alchemist's throat. They had a painted Xingese mask bearing the symbol of Yin directly on the center of their forehead. The warrior also had a feminine physique, slightly noticeable under all the the black clothing puffed out around the limbs, unlike the other warrior pointing his own Xingese weapon at Alphonse's torso. The other xingese bodyguard, who wore the Yang symbol on his mask, had a mop of snowy white hair, spiking out from behind his round mask. Like the taller fighter, the obviously older man wore a soldier's uniform from a different country, and each were ready to attack on their leader's signal.

"Edward! Alphonse!" Ode screamed, her fear's roaring to life, as she changed her speed from a casual walk to a full on sprint. Her heart was racing from her timid thoughts. She wouldn't watch her new saviors' be threatened. She had to do something!

All their necks craned towards the teen girl's direction, but it was the dark haired guy Ode kept her eyes locked on, as he finally turned to her with an eyebrow raised. Her brown eyes flew open, while her legs slowed to a light jog, and then to a complete stop. She knew that face. There, merely a few feet away, was the twelfth prince of Xing.

Ling Yao.

"Ling?" She asked in disbelief, unsure if her own eyes were tricking her or not. She felt her heart slow its pounding beat as her anxious feelings of dread ceased.

The prince stared at her, knitting his brow together, as though he was trying to improve his squinted sight. Then his features lit up to a spritely glow. He flashed her a welcoming grin, with his closed lids forming a cheerful smile of their own.

"Oh hey, it's you~!" Ling exclaimed, lifting himself off his seat to stand, "Ode, right?"

"Yes, that's me."Ode nodded.

"Wow, you've certainly changed! I didn't recognize you with you're hair up like that," he lightly confessed, pointing his index finger up to the girl's mixed hair.

"Hold on a second!" A vexed voice called from behind Ling. Tilting her head to glance past Ling's muscular figure, she found the short alchemist still posed in the same area, with his head cocked as far as the warrior's blade would let him. "Ode, you know this guy?"

"I met him on my way to Dublith, awhile ago," she passively said.

Edward grunted angrily, rolling his eyes, "I guess I shouldn't be surprised. You always like making friends with troublemakers."

Ode grimaced, mulling over what the alchemist said. That was a strange little remark.

"Well if you try really hard, I'm sure you can make friends too, Edward," she encouraged bluntly, "You should be quieter, then you wouldn't scare so many people away."

Without warning Ling burst out laughing at Ode's naïvety. She gazed at the prince with large eyes. According to Ode she was being helpful to the shortie, but to Ed, well...

"Wha? What's that suppose to mean?" Ed demanded, squirming around in the leaner bodyguards hold. The warrior had to increase the pressure on his tool to make him stop.

"See? You won't have any friends by acting like that."

The young prince had to hold back another fit of laughter, as he covered his mouth with his hand. He would have let their squabble go on longer, however, he still had business to discuss. Ling turned to face Edward, placing his skilled hand's on his waist, and swiped his goofy smile off his lips.

"Now that you're in a talkative mood. Out with it, what do you know about the Philosopher Stone?"

This stunned Ode some. The Xingese prince did tell her once before, about his mission to seek out a legend known by alchemists, but he never specified what the legend was. Then again, she never heard of the Philosopher Stone. It did sound intriguing.

"You say you want immortality? Please, what a bunch of nonsense." Edward scoffed.

"Not to me it isn't." Ling said, unaffected by the blonde's doubts, while he sunk down on his previously used chair.

Ed grew tired of the Xingese bodyguard restricting his movements. In a brisk motion, the alchemist blocked the sharply tipped weapon with his metal palm."In any case, I can't say I care for your way of asking questions. Kinda rude, don't you think?"

Ed swung his natural arm at the bodyguard; it missed the skillful opponent, and they took flight into the air. Gravity pulled him back down, giving him the chance to raise his leg and brutally kick Edward.

His brother called out to him, as he attempted to break free from his own opponent. Alphonse clutched the katana in his hands, though the old man would have none of that. The older man released his own hold on his sword, and lunged at the armoured boy, intending to gain the upper hand in his battle.

"Ah, hold on!"he yelled. Alphonse held his stretched hand out, hoping to cease the fight. Instead, his move was used against him. The Xingese warrior grabbed onto it for balance, and perform a hand-stand, spinning his legs and kicking him square in his head. The force was so great, Alphonse's bulky body was flung backwards, crashing down hard.

Both brothers were now lying next to each other, grumbling their thought's that neither the Xingese nor Ode could hear. With fierce determination, they rose back up to their feet. Whatever they said, must have motivated them deeply. At the same time, both bodyguards charged straight towards Edward and Alphonse; this time though, the boys were prepared.

The sound of a clap echoed all around Rush Valley, followed by a blinding blue light. The dirt beneath them puffed to a smokey fog, shielding the fighters, while the swishes of metal, and eruptions of alchemic reactions were heard. The noises gradually faded into the distance, as soon as they started, though. The dusty barrier was swept by a strong wind, along with the intense scene. Sure enough the four had taken their fight across town, leaving a trail of electrical looking flashes dancing in the horizon behind.

"Off they go~" Ling sang through his amused chuckling. Ode did the same as the prince, and watched the sporadic lights soar. She was alone again, feeling rather nervous. What if they didn't come back again? Ode didn't like that idea at all.

_I have to follow them!_

Ode started up in a run, though a tightening grip clasped around her skinny wrist, as she was sprung back like a dog on a leash. Her cinnamon eyes shifted down to see a bandaged arm, keeping her from running.

"I wouldn't go after them if I were you," Ling warned,"You don't want to get in the middle of their fight."

The prince was probably right. Besides, as a non-fighter, she wouldn't stand a chance against Ling's bodyguards. And with Ling wanting information, he wouldn't allow his men to kill the Elric brothers.

"I guess not..."She agreed.

"Why not sit down with me, while we wait?" Ling insisted in a cheery voice. It was something about his tone that made his request sound more like an order to the teen girl. Though she simply brushed it off and seated herself on the other side of the table. Only then did Ling loosen his grasp and slip his hand from around her wrist

_He really wanted me to stay here, didn't he?_

"Hey pop!" Ling called over his shoulder to the waiter looming around the entryway of the restaurant, "Add some desert to my tab."

"Sure thing!" The waiter obeyed, scribbling on his little notepad before going inside to fetch some delicious sweets.

"So," the prince said, leaning his head against the palm of his already perched elbow, "What brings you here? Last I heard, you were heading out to Dublith."

Indeed she was. Her face dulled to a disheartened look, while her eyes traveled from his gaze to the empty table. Ode lost her voice for a moment.

"Well that's a sad look," Ling teased. She hastily looked back up, to see a crooked smirk gracing his lips, "I guess it wasn't much of a good plan, was it?"

"No, it was a terrible plan."

"Terrible enough to take a bite out of you, I see." He observed, pointing an index finger to the side of her head. On instinct, Ode lifted her hand to gingerly caress her damaged ear, "How did it happen?"

She hesitated. He was certainly making bold moves. No one was willing to ask her about the incident, until now. Sucking in a breath of fresh air, she summoned the courage to open her lips, and answer him."It started with a kidnapping, and I wish I was never apart of it."

"Kidnapping? That's very daring of you."Ling replied. He then thought of an idea, a mischievous one in fact. "May I ask you something personal?"

He had Ode's full attention now..The twelfth prince's eyes opened for the first time around Ode, alarming the girl. But what he said next, was quite shocking, and in his own words "_very daring."_

"What if I were to kidnap you?"

-x-x-x-

Wow my first intentional cliffhanger! Haha! So I was really nervous about writing this chapter, especially since Ling is now playing a big role. I'm just _**really, really **_hoping he's in character! Also if anyone was annoyed with the little angst moment,Ode was going through, i'm sorry about that. I figured I would get it out in the open in this chapter, and just be done with Ode's breakdown. I promise it won't be so depressing to read in the next chapters :)


	13. A Clue Named Rollo

Chapter 13 "A Clue Named Rollo"

Disclaimer: I do not own anything involving Full Metal Alchemist.

**Note: …I'm really surprised this now has over a 100 reviews, no seriously I am. From the first day I started this I imagined that it might get a couple dozen reviews, and that's when I completely finished it. But no, I was clearly off. So really, thank you all very much! **

**Enjoy the read! **

"Kidnap me?"

Ode wasn't sure how to feel about that. Was she supposed to be afraid of him or not?

If anything, she was startled from seeing Ling's eyes for the first time. Small irises shaded a dark grey stared devilishly at her in interest. They were nowhere near close to his friendly narrowed look that would smile goofily on their own. But a subtle shine around the black rim softened his mischievous demeanor to seem like light teasing…Though, was it really light teasing?

"That's right, in case your friends are able to fend off my body guards, I'll have you. I'm sure they'll tell me about the Philosopher Stone with you around." Ling explained so casually.

His words disturbed Ode as chills rushed through her body, and bumps formed on her half bare arms. His plan was unpleasantly similar to the last kidnapping; even deeper than that, it was similar to _Greed's. _The kidnappings were both related to the boys; they both tried talking, to only result in violence, they both wanted a bargaining chip to use against said boys, and were both after the impossible. To become immortal.

Ode barely whispered loud enough for Ling to hear, while she shook her head discouragingly, "No, they won't."

The Xingese prince scrunched his eyebrows together, confused. "What?"

"The brothers. They won't tell you anything, if I'm with you or not." she said much louder this time, "Making trades…it…it doesn't go too well, and I don't want to hear Edward scream that loud again."

_Nobody does._

Ling pulled his brows apart and raised them up, making his slanted eye-shape grow wider. "Really, he can scream louder than he did today? He must've been really mad, huh?

"Yes…he's sort of okay now, I think. Well, maybe not, he might be mad at me…" Ode admitted, as she thought more on the shorty and his constant scoldings. He certainly didn't like her much. "Anyway, the point is it failed. So, please. Don't go through with your plan. You're only wasting time…please."

Ling's crooked smirk dropped, almost like he was looking for an important clue written across her gloomy face in hidden ink, before eventually closing them. The rest of his long face turned blank, appearing to have fallen asleep on his perched arm, with his palm holding his jaw. And then…

He burst into hysterical laughter.

The Xingese prince threw his head up to the clear blue sky, his eyes returning to their smiling manner while his arms held tightly onto his stomach. His amusement overwhelmed the confused girl as she stared at him deadpan. She didn't get it; she wasn't even being funny to her knowledge.

"Why do you keep laughing at me?" She inquired solemnly, watching the foreigner opposite of her continue his fit of laughter. He attempted to stop once he heard Ode, letting out a little less noise each time he breathed.

"So—sorry, sorry! You're so serious— it's too easy! Y-you really don't know when I'm kidding with you~" Ling spritely said, finishing off his last laugh and grinning widely.

_He was kidding? Why? And what about being serious? What's wrong with that?_

"Is that bad?" She hesitantly pushed.

Ling caught the anxiety in her almost single toned voice, and hastily waved a hand to stop any insecurity that might bloom, "Now, now, don't take it personally. I just mean you're sincere, that's all."

"Oh." The teen girl frowned. She thought it was weird how he believed she was humourous. Apparently she was too easy as well, too easy for what? Well, he did call her sincere, so it must be good…whatever sincere meant, that is.

Suddenly a tanned skin man in a green apron approached the two, carrying a silver tray of dishes she could only assume were for Ling, to the crate-like table. He set them in the middle, uttering a gleeful phrase or two, and then left to continue with the rest of his work.

"Doesn't this look delicious?"

Curiously, cinnamon eyes drifted down to food on display. Sure enough, the Xingese prince was right. On top of the white plates were a couple pastries. There was a chocolate bit, drizzled in a frosty glaze that dripped over the edge, and was topped with a bright red strawberry. Another was a whitish-yellow cup, filled with several fruit inside, then smothered in clear syrup. Though the best by far (according to Ode) were the round orbs toppling over each other in a bowl. She could tell by the colour, they were meant to be a creamy chocolate and vanilla, but what they were exactly, she didn't know.

She watched Ling hungrily scarf down his meal, the sound of his chewing and the occasional hums of approval were all she could hear…Then it hit her.

Taken by surprise Ode glanced left to right, trying to find the blue lightning bolts dancing in the distance. Before, the teen could hear them as white noise, though now, she couldn't even hear that.

"What's wrong?" She heard Ling ask. He stopped eating and was looking at her quite puzzled with a plate and fork in both hands.

"I don't hear Edward or Alphonse," Ode said, "I don't see them, either."

Ling twisted his body half way to gaze behind him, as he too searched for a sign of alchemy. There wasn't so much as a loud clap echoing around the town; just a few murmurs of civilians, and the banging of metal against metal in nearby shops.

"Looks like they may have stopped fighting," he observed, returning back to face his nearly finished chocolate pastry.

Ode's good ear perked and she rose to her feet abruptly, pressing her hands on the edge of the table while she beamed at the prince, "Did they? It's safe to follow them?"

"Well let's just wait a moment," Ling cautioned, though it was clearly heard literally on a deaf ear. She pushed off the table and raced down the long road, rounding the corner of a tall building, and trailed after the destruction left behind.

Ling could easily free his hands of the western dining ware and catch up to her, he was fast enough, but he was struggling. He glanced down at his wonderful food, then to the spot he last saw Ode, then back to his food, then back to the spot, then back to his food, then back the spot again!

"This decision is killing me." The prince whined, crossing his arms on the crate surface and crashing his head on it, "Why did you have to do that Ode?"

-x-x-x-

The Elric's pathway of chaos and ruins was making it easy for Ode to reach them faster. She could tell it was Edward who stretched out buildings to climb up rooftops, and mangled street poles so he could jump high. And any place she found a circle with a strange design, it was definitely Alphonse causing that disaster. Oh, those boys weren't subtle in anyway, unlike the Xingese bodyguards. Despite that the teenage boys were roughly attacking them, the two dressed in midnight black showed no sign that they were fighting rough too,(except for the random spear-like knives embedded here or there.)

After traveling onward from alleyway to alleyway alone, Ode finally stumbled upon four people lurking among the shadowy rifts and debris left by the brothers. But they weren't who she was looking for.

Instead, there were three boys appearing to be around Ode's age hanging by a brick wall with several spikes extending out. Typically, she noticed they all had one or two artificial limbs attached to their torso, as she swept her eyes over them. They seemed normal at first glance, but something was off about those boys once she found the fourth figure in their group. In the center sat a younger boy leaning his back on smooth grey bricks, looking terrified.

"Enough games, Rollo!" A shaggy brunette sneered, lifting his automail leg and kicking the kid in his knee. The boy named Rollo hissed through clenched teeth as he pulled his knees close to his chest, and covered them with his arms.

"We know you did it. Just fix the wall before Mr. Avery gets back, you bastard! " the tallest boy demanded, before he too launched a kick at him.

Ode held her breath. She was enduring an edgy feeling, soaking in the shallow moves used on a defenseless boy. Whatever the boy had done, he didn't deserve to be beaten for sport.

_No one does._

Edward and Alphonse would have to wait awhile as she decided to walk over with blind courage. She stopped a foot apart from a short blonde haired boy and lightly poked his mechanical shoulder until he turned.

"'The hell do you want?" He snapped, which caught the attention of the other two, including the poor kid.

Ode gave him a stunned expression by his uncouth greeting. Apparently this guy wasn't nice to anyone; however, she shrugged it off and opened her mouth, speaking coolly, " You know, what you're doing is wrong."

"Pff, what are you, a saint?" the shaggy boy retorted, "Piss off will ya? No one wants you here!"

She didn't listen. Instead Ode stepped to the side, walking past the vulgar blonde,and entering the narrow space where the boy sat. Rollo had to be no older than thirteen, judging by his child-like figure. He was a twig wrapped in an elegant dark sleeved shirt, with two rows of buttons sewn on the front, worn with matching shorts and knee-length socks. A crimson tie hung from his collar, pulling the whole wardrobe together neatly. To finish his clean appearance, his light brown hair had been combed out to give it a soft wavy touch.

"Rollo," she called, assuming the bullies were saying his name correctly, " Let's go."

The boy seemed like he was confronting a ghost. He turned his head side-to-side, inspecting Ode's appearance. Anyone could simply gaze into his eyes to know he was bewildered, and possibly, frightened. Was he scared of her?

"You're not...but...no, you're not her. Are you?" she heard him say slowly.

No, he wasn't scared, from what he said, it sounded like...he knew her.

Ode didn't get to dwindle on this matter, for a second later the guys' intervened.

"Didn't you hear him?" the short blonde growled, losing what little patient's he had left, "He said for _you_ to piss _off_!" Right as he said 'off' he violently yanked on her loose clothes, throwing her backwards and causing her to fall on her bottom.

Ode managed to stop herself from landing completely on her back by smacking her hands to the ground and locking her elbows to keep steady. Her palms stung and throbbed painfully, wincing as she tried to rub the fierce pain away using her black jacket.

Once the sting had weakened, she rallied up enough strength in her legs to push off the ground, and arose. She then turned her palms upward and briefly studied the top layer of skin, instantly finding fresh scrapes swelling red. Ode sighed, "That really hurt."

"Oh, what a shame!" she heard one sarcastically reply.

Ode wasn't certain, but she thought she heard false pity in the boy's voice, and of course, she needed to make sure, "…You know, I don't think you mean that at all."

Her suspicions were spot on as the boys snorted in laughter.

"No shit! Did ya figure that out by yourself?"

_Um, Yes..._

"How about guessing what I mean when I say this," the shaggy boy mocked ever so 'sweetly', before pausing to clear his throat. His giddy voice then dropped, and was replaced with a nastier one. "Back the hell up, and leave us alone, _dumbass_."

That was a new one. Ode was called a smartass once by Dolcetto, but never a dumbass. It was a simple word—and it truly was a _simple word_, yet in a matter of seconds, a spark suddenly ignited deep inside. A flaming pressure burned her chest and slowly heated her skin. Her eyes narrowed on the dirtiest-looking boy of the bunch.

"I'm not dumb, or an ass. And I won't watch you call me names that I know are lies,"she said dryly, then flickering an eye to Rollo and then back to the dirty teen, "I also won't watch you blame Rollo for a mess that Edward made."

"Wait, what?" the tallest teen cried.

"There's _another_ alchemist?" a shocked shaggy teen asked.

"Who the fuck is Edward?" the blonde snarled.

"How do you know it was this Edward guy and not him?"

"Did you _see_ him do it?"

"For crying out loud, are you going to spit it out or what?"

This was also a new one. Never had Ode been bombarded with so many questions all at the same time. Usually it was she who was blurting out her curiosities to everyone else. She wasn't sure which one to respond to first, as their voices attacked her, and expected her to reply. Ode then widened her mouth, only to close it as another chorus of inquiries were thrown at her.

"Hang on, if you know the alchemist who did this, why didn't you stop him?"

"Hey, that's right! Why did you watch him destroy property huh?

"Did you get a kick out of it? Or maybe you were apart of that bastard's little trick?"

"Seriously? that's pathetic! You were apart of it?"

"Came back to bask in the glory, huh? I bet that's why you're here, isn't it?"

The trio of boys were no longer focused on their previous victim. They had found a new target, as each member of the small gang closed in around Ode with a hostile look.

_This wasn't what I thought would happen..._

Ode inched her heel's very cautiously in the other direction, hoping to get as far away as she could. That feeling of a burning fire in her chest died under the pressure of their rage filled glares, and a nervy emotion replaced it.

She jumped in surprise as the short blonde roughly snatched her arm, squeezing his metal fingers into her skin. Ode panicked; an image had flashed of an older man in uniform lunging his arms at a bleeding Ode. He gripped her arm just as tightly, while he slammed her down to the pub's hallway, his other arm outstretched for her gun...and through all her desperate thrashing, she grabbed the gun first. She pulled the trigger.

On impulse, Ode brutally swung her foot into blondie's exposed thigh, making him grunt and slacken his hold. She took her chance and wrenched her arm away, unfortunately, she didn't pull her leg back fast enough. In a counter attack, he caught her ankle and pushed her leg up, the rest of her body went crashing down. Ode let out a cry. Her shoulder blade had hit the ground first, shooting an incredible pain that left her cringing in agony.

He wouldn't get away with that. Through the pain, Ode kicked her right limb high, and viciously dug her black shoe in his stomach. The short blonde couldn't tolerate pain like Ode, and clumsily dropped her lower half to nurse his injury.

Ode needed to rely much on her right side, while she carefully propped herself up on her knees. She didn't get further than that on her own, though. The shaggy boy violently went for the back of her head, and sharply tugged on her neat bundle of hair, she yelped. Not wanting to endure anymore pain, she forced herself to follow his arm upward, clutching a hand to her head to ease the strain.

"That's enough of that,"shaggy said.

Ode ignored him and attempted to pry his hand off her by scratching her nails across it, yet to no success. He merely yanked her to the left, and released her (and released her hair from its bun too.)Her body was thrown like a rag doll to the wall, with her left shoulder hitting it hard. The next thing she knew she was dealing with an awful pain throughout her shoulder blade.

"So guys, what do you think we should do?"

"I think we should hang her, along with the brat," a recovering blonde huffed, "Give them some time to think about messing with alchemy."

"Good idea!"

The teen girl wondered what they meant, though she was about to find out. She was taken from the wall by a pair of filthy arms, and was led to several of the sharp spikes. Then those very arms lifted her off the ground to be strung up a couple feet in the air. She wasn't choking, luckily, as the spike was snug in between her shirt and jacket, with her body facing the grey bricks instead of the opposite wall. A shadow suddenly appeared beside her, hanging in the exact position as Ode, except she heard the sound of a shirt ripping when he was put on a spike.

"Have fun up there you two! Oh, and give our regards to Mr. Avery, okay?"

After that, a hum of laughter erupted and gradually disappeared, leaving the two alone in a fairly embarrassing predicament.

For a long time it was silent.

Ode would occasionally sway her feet in a circle, and sometimes try to touch the alleyway floor with the tip of her toe for entertainment. And Rollo...Rollo just hung there. There were moments where he would scratch his nose, or kick a foot to the wall, while he shoved his hand in his tiny pocket, but that was really it. He was sort of boring to have for company.

That changed; however, when a noise of cloth tearing was heard. Rollo was holding the spike above him, and was creating a larger hole in his handsome shirt, while he pushed himself downward. Finally, the last of the thread holding it together tore, and he dropped nicely to solid ground. Ode blinked.

"Why didn't you do that sooner?" she asked to the elegant boy who was dusting his sleeves off.

Rollo turned to Ode, revealing dark chocolate eyes as large as Winry's. He took a step near her, keeping his eyes on her. Though, out of nowhere, he smacked her bare leg.

"Why didn't you listen when they told you to leave?" Rollo cried angrily, speaking for the first time since Ode saw him,"What were you thinking?"

"What was I thinking?" Ode copied him gently, shifting her eyes to the wall, before responding, "I thought we would leave together. But they didn't look like they would let us do that anyway...Now that I think about it, I knew they were violent, and I'm not a good fighter-"

Another smack to her leg brought her out of her daze,"You're not a good fighter, and you still challenged them? you idiot!"

"I'm not an idiot," Ode said, but he was still going.

"Who does that? Who throws the first hit knowing they won't win? That's ridiculous, I can barely comprehend someone would be so idiotic!"

"I'm not an idiot," she said again.

"That wasn't brave, that was foolish! You could've been beaten to a pulp! Then your heroic plan would be gone, and you wouldn't have saved me! No, you _didn't_ save me, you idiot!"

"I'm not an idiot."

"Do you know how idiotic you sounded? _'_You know, I don't think you mean that at all', that wasn't helping you or me! I've never seen someone so oblivious! What is wrong with you? Are you ill? Your brave act was atrocious. Look where you are now, you're hanging like a dead man! You idiot, idiot, idiot!"

"I'm not an idiot-"

"—I HEARD YOU THE FIRST TIME, STOP SAYING THAT!" He bellowed, his voice amusingly cracking halfway. Realising what he did, Rollo straightened himself out. He smoothed his face, and readjusted his pretty red tie, taking a few calming breaths, and finished with a frustrated sigh.

"I'm Ode." she greeted randomly, too randomly for Rollo as he gave her a gaped look.

"Again with the idiocy," he muttered under his breath, before he dove his hand in his pocket, rummaging his fingers around. He tugged his hand out, and cased an object in his balled fist. Unraveling his grip, Ode noticed it was a piece of chalk.

"What are you doing?"she said, watching Rollo start to draw a white circle on the bricks.

"I'm getting you down from there," he explained as he kept drawing complex lines, "Bare with me for a moment. I'm not fast at drawing like other alchemists."

Indeed he was very slow. He made a lot of mistakes in his drawing, each time he'd have to use his sleeve to erase it. But after awhile Ode figured out he was done when he lightly touched the circle. It glowed a purplish-light, and soon all the spikes were pulled back into the wall. Ode was freed of her own spike, and landed to the ground with a loud clank coming from her shoes.

"That's why I didn't use alchemy to fight those vermin off. They would have stopped me before I could complete the circle," he told her, while he crossed his arms, " Those three never fight fair. I can't really blame them though."

"Why is that?"Ode stared.

A snobbish smirked curved his lips, "It's because I don't fight fair. We've had a rivalry since the first day I visited from Central."

_He lives in Central? Hmm, well if he's from there then maybe that's where-_

Her thought was cut off as Rollo turned his back to reveal the ripped hole on his shirt. With a wave of his hand he headed to the mouth of the alley, "Well if you'll excuse me, I'll be going back to my aunt's. Thanks for, er, well nothing."

"Wait, Rollo!"Ode called out urgently, causing him to whirl around.

"What is it?"

It was now or never. There was a reason why Rollo looked shocked by her presence earlier. She had to ask him or risk never having another chance,"Rollo. Do you know who I am?"

Rollo stared her down, clearly straining over what to say. Eventually he found the words, but even then he sounded unsure of his himself, "No, I don't."Curiously, his dark eyes flashed up and down Ode's figure, before he went on, "But you look a lot like her, and I'm a little curious as to why. Tell me, does Nora sound familiar?"

_Nora?_

Ode knew she never heard it before,no one's image was coming to mind, yet for some reason, it felt like she once knew. It was like a forgotten dream, or lost facts learned long ago. This mystery girl was becoming very interesting by the second.

"I think it does,"she said, though sounding as unsure as he did.

Rollo paused to think, cupping his own chin and standing there quietly for awhile, before replying, "If you happen to be in Central anytime after this week, don't hesitate to stop by my home. Perhaps we can solve this small mystery together."

His offer was insanely convenient, so much that it was a little frightening. Up until that moment, Ode wasn't searching for her past. She was content living in a present that taught her about the world at its own pace. The lost past was meaningless, she wasn't missing it. All she needed to do was look forward to gain knowledge. But then she met Rollo, and it all changed. He held the forbidden fruit in his palm, and Ode wanted to taste it. The odds were slim, but if it was possible, why not try to discover this Nora, and a potential connection between them? She had nothing to lose.

"Alright," she agreed with a nod, "Though how will I find where you live?"

Rollo fought a smile that was creeping at the edge of his mouth, "Ask around for Roland Locke." He to take steps backwards as he peered at Ode, "I'm sure someone will know."

Right as he was about to leave for good, Ode shouted to him one last thing, "Oh, Rollo? Who is Nora?"

Rollo left her with three words. "She's my sister."

-x-x-x-

"That was close," Ling grinned in relief. He claimed to speak little english to the furious mob like he did on several occasions, during his stay in Amestris. These Amestrian's weren't the smartest people he's met.

He had found Lan-Fan and Fu battling on rooftops with the brothers, after fruitlessly hunting for Ode. Even when he followed the direction she went, he still tracked where the fight was first, despite her leading with a head start. He wouldn't doubt that she likely strayed off the path, but that did annoy Ling a bit. All that sweet food he scarfed down so he could race after her was a waste. He didn't get to take his time and enjoy each bite as he wanted to.

Oh well, at least he wasn't cleaning the town like the alchemists were. And he was alright with waiting for the brothers to complete their community service. After watching the end of the fight, the prince had to admit, they had impressive skills. He would have to try to recruit them again...maybe when they aren't so mad that he sent his bodyguards after them.

For now, Ling was strolling across town being observed by his faithful servants from above. When he located the main road, in the distance he saw the very person he originally sought out. Ode was walking with her arm messaging her opposite shoulder, eyeing the road as her hair hung loose. From how she carried herself, Ling could tell she stumbled upon her own little fight, making his fox-like smile turn to a frown.

"You've been playing rough,"He noted, once he decided she was close enough. Her head retracted up, wearing a surprised look that relaxed at the sight of him, "Here I thought, you wanted to find your friends."

"Oh. Right, I forgot about that," she admitted, still gingerly rubbing her shoulder.

Ling didn't bother to ask, and harmlessly moved her massaging hand. Delicately, he touched the layer of cloth covering her skin, only to have her squirm a little. She wasn't simply punched there, she was hit by a blunt force.

"Rubbing it won't do much good," He informed. Raising his fingers off her shoulder he bent them in a gesturing motion, "Come on, we need to put ice on it. Where are you staying?"

"I'll show you,"she said, obviously baffled, but led him back to Winry's automail shop. Ling had to ponder that she probably wasn't expecting him to help her wound, but at the rate Ode was getting hurt, he may have to treat her often. He would especially have to if he intended on joining her group. And by joining her group, he meant following them around until they accept him in.

Ling was determined to gain immortality, and the best approach to retrieving it is to stick with these they liked it or not, Ling was going to stay with them until he got what he wanted.

-x-x-x-

You know I always thought that Ling would be the kind of guy to never waste a meal, unless he absolutely has no other option. So I really couldn't resist putting him in a tough situation; stuck between what he loves and what he knows will go terribly wrong if doesn't stop her. XD

And how about that Rollo character? I know he's gonna be tons of fun in future chapters!

Well once again guys, I have to say thank you very much~ And now I'm off to write Chapter 14!


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